De Lima celebrates birthday in jail

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima has celebrated her 58th birthday in a simple gathering attended by families, friends and associates yesterday in her cell at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

De Lima, who has been locked up for 187 days at the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said there is “beauty in solitude and suffering.”

In a handwritten note in Filipino released to the media, De Lima said her birthday wish is “vindication” and freedom from her “unjust detention under the Duterte regime” and from the lies against her.

De Lima said she has grown closer to God and now has more time to read the Bible, along with other books that were given to her by friends and supporters who visited her.

De Lima said she prays this will be the first and last time she celebrates her birthday in detention.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas officiated the mass, along with Fathers Albert Alejo, Robert Reyes, Hector Cañon and Flavie Villanueva in the Custodial Center.

In his homily, Villegas said not even the walls of this prison can separate a person from God, apparently referring to De Lima’s detention.

He thanked De Lima for “inspiring, touching, challenging and teaching people how to love God and His people.”

Alejo, for his part, asked De Lima to recall what she was doing on her birthday last year, as he read an entry from his personal journal.

In it, he shared how he finally got in touch with De Lima on the night of her birthday a year ago to ask if they could meet for “a very sensitive and urgent matter.” The matter, as it turned out, was about Edgar Matobato, a selfconfessed hitman of the Davao death squad. –