It is not easy to draft a fitting message for Senator Leila de Lima, especially on her birthday. What does one say to a woman with manifold gifts and such fortitude, and yet has been so unfairly treated?

I had announced in my opinion, like four other Supreme Court justices, the absolute lack of evidence against her. That she has been incarcerated for three and a half years on the testimony of convicted criminals, contradicted by honorable witnesses who testified on her innocence, is an indictment against the justice system itself.

I have found it increasingly difficult to talk about her situation. In my eyes, hers is the most poignant case of twisted justice in recent times. It demonstrates the depth of some Filipinos’ capacity to be cruel to one of our own. It is agonizing, because the longer she is unjustly detained, the deeper the wounding of the Filipino soul, and the more putrid the stench of injustice in the land. And this causes me to face the question of our identity: how can we Filipinos call ourselves Christians when we gloat over the unjust killing of fellow Filipinos? And how can we gleefully applaud the arbitrary denial of a citizen’s right to liberty–especially when that citizen is a public servant whose supposed “fault” was to protect her fellow citizens’ right to life? If, as former Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, her search for accountability for the horrendous Davao murders was not the rightful pursuit of justice, then, heaven help us, what justice is left for the Filipino? If the murders turn out to have not taken place, we will all feel relieved; but by law and by everything that is right, she had the duty to investigate.