Sorry po, Senator De Lima

I was up early as usual even on a Sunday of a long weekend. At 54, I am energized enough the day after with just 4-5 hours of sleep. I read it’s normal for people my age. As mother and wife, I busy myself with feeding my dogs and doing the laundry. The brood is still fast asleep save for the older son who is an early riser like me but is wont to stay in his room with his laptop. He likes that small world of his which I think he appreciates all the more now that he is home only on weekends after deciding to dorm. 

I checked my Twitter feed and posted a second greeting to one mother who has been in jail for more than 100 days. It’s her 58^th birthday today. She happens to be the bravest woman in our country and the one our president and a host of others targeted to put in jail even before this regime won the biggest mistake of a presidential election ever. Senator De Lima is feisty. She fights for the truth and human rights and these two things were twisted to get her imprisoned. If you are Filipino, you would know how she ended up in jail as Duterte’s first political prisoner. Hopefully, you are that kind of Filipino who agree that the truth was twisted and her rights were violated in the process of shutting her down. 

I apologize to Senator De Lima because I could not fight for her freedom and I could not defend her enough against people who think the worst about her. I remember a colleague who believing the media and Filipinos’ favorite source of info, Facebook, disdainfully commenting months ago at De Lima’s mention of God in one of her speeches before her Senate colleagues abandoned her to the lions in HOR and DOJ. I was so angry that I could only say, “Please shut up before I could start hating you for what you are saying.” I should have lectured him on the truth about all the ganging up being done but I was just too angry to do so.  Good thing that this much younger colleague backed down but I guess that is one reason I could not talk politics and current events with my co-teachers anymore. 

I see calls for her release here and abroad but I don’t see enough people in street protests to do the same. Some sectors even resent leaflets being handed out at the PPM with her name on them, angrily dismissing any statement from her as unnecessarily coloring the event yellow. I am sorry, dear Senator that people especially some younger “activists” of today, do not see you as one they should be crying for justice for, too.

This reminds me of my own youth when the likes of Ninoy Aquino were picked up and banished from public view by the Marcos regime. After the initial shock of Proc 1081, many Filipinos carried on with life, our family included. The Press was subdued and so we didn’t know much about the thousands who were kidnapped, tortured, jailed or killed in Marcos’ name. I didn’t consider Ninoy as somebody worthy of my attention then because many regarded him as a traditional politician too like the then president. Ninoy languished in jail for more than seven years. I was with the university student council when he was assassinated. I didn’t care to pay my respects for him at his wake because I still believed then he wasn’t worth it. It took me the years that followed to realize how his death galvanized the Filipino people into one big force to topple a dictatorship. It took me years to realize he was one very intelligent, eloquent Filipino leader who finally had his heart and mind in the right place after years of being in jail.

Now, with media not being suppressed, I see no reason why Sen De Lima's life and battles should be unclear to many. Unfortunately, media is still not up to task in telling the truth and social media muddles everything that passes through it. Given the technology of verifying every bit of information that comes our way, we should have not made the mistake of allowing her enemies and erstwhile friends to send her to jail. She is a senator of the republic whose rights she has consistently protected, a mother and daughter to the family she cares so much for. What have we done allowing this murderous regime to take her away?

Dear Senator, up to now, whenever I mention your name in class or in the faculty room, I sense the same lack of interest in your plight. I apologize for my community’s continuing cluelessness about if not apathy toward the injustice done to you, Senator De Lima. I apologize on behalf of a country that is yet to realize your contributions to the elusive goal of good governance. I apologize that you have to spend your birthday in jail when your colleagues, many of whom more jail-worthy, enjoy their being callous enablers of a presidency this country never deserved to suffer from but had the biggest blunder of voting into power.

I know you are a very prayerful woman whose relationship with our God is further strengthened by this test which His enemy imposed on you. Despite the situation you are in, let me assure you that in time (I hope soon), more Filipinos will realize the truth about you and your enemies will be outed and punished for what they have done to you.

God bless you always, Senator De Lima. Happy birthday, Madam!