MANILA – Justice Secretary Leile de Lima bade farewell to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday as she prepared to enter into a ‘new world,’ which she did not disclose but has been speculated to be the Senate.
“I am proud to have served and fought for the Filipino people alongside all of you. I could not have wished for a more dedicated and professional corps of workers for justice, who will continue to do the work I will leave behind,” De Lima said in her State of the Department Address (SODA).
“It is therefore with great hesitation that I will soon leave all of you as your Secretary,” she added.
Admitting that leaving will not be easy, De Lima prided herself with what the DOJ has accomplished in the past five years – from delivering ‘real-time justice’ to retirement gratuity differentials of prosecutors and modernization of systems.
“All of these accomplishments were without challenges. There were times that we were pressured, cajoled and influenced into forsaking our convictions, but we persevered and stood our ground,” she said, calling all the DOJ’s workers ‘not to be afraid of carrying our task.’