PRESS RELEASE
June 23, 2010

The League of Filipino Students views as a positive development the appointment of CHR Chairperson Leima De Lima as incoming Secretary of the Department of Justice. During the violent dispersal of student and youth activists in August 2009 protesting the lavish dinners of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, CHR Chair De Lima was among the first to stand in defense of the injured and arrested students.

She convened a conference with the student leaders and members who were injured in the violent dispersal by the elements of the Presidential Security Group and took the PSG to task for serious violations of the students’ right to free expression and assembly.

It is much hoped that upon assuming the DoJ post, Atty. De Lima shall display the same pro-people and pro-human rights positions as she had held during her stint in the CHR, which is a clear and refreshing break from previous DoJ secretaries that had merely followed the beck and call of Mrs. Arroyo in harassing through the legal system legitimate dissenters and critics.

We would most gladly welcome her intervention for the immediate dismissal of politically-motivated cases filed against Arroyo critics during Mrs. Arroyo’s nine-year term, such as the illegal arrest and detention of the Morong 43, and the continuing rebellion cases filed against leaders of multi-sectoral organizations across the country, including baseless cases against Rep. Satur Ocampo.

We hope she would pursue with much resolve the full prosecution of all persons and institutions involved in the more than 1000 cases of political killings and enforced disappearances, including those involving youth and student leaders such as UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, who shall have been disappeared for four years already on the 26th of June, 2010.###