Described as Fortune Magazine’s “annual list of thinkers, speakers, and doers who are stepping up to meet today’s challenges,” the magazine featured detained Senator Leila De Lima in its World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.
“President Rodrigo Duterte’s hard-line policies against drug dealers are polarizing globally, but in the Philippines, they’ve faced little dissent. De Lima who headed a committee investigating hundreds of extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s leadership has been a noble exception,” the magazine wrote.
“Last February, she was arrested and jailed for as-yet-untried crimes, but imprisonment hasn’t stopped the firebrand from continuing to speak out publicly,” it added.
De Lima ranked 39th in the New York-based business magazine’s list which included country presidents, chief executive officers (CEOs), and other leaders. She is the only personality from the Philippines to make it on the list.
The students that fought against gun violence in relation to shootings, Gates Foundation Founders Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, The #MeToo Movement, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier topped the 50 Greatest Leaders.
Currently, De Lima, one of Duterte’s staunch critics is detained in Camp Crame. She was arrested in February last year for drug charges filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) – a department she used to be the secretary of.
“Karangalan ko po na ako ay makulong sa mga pinaglalaban ko po… Inosente po ako. Wala pong katotohanan, pawing kasinungalingan po ang mga pinaparating nila sa’kin na ako’y ‘di umano nakinabang sa droga… Lalabas po ang katotohanan sa tamang panahon (It is an honor to be in jail for something that I am fighting for… I am innocent. There is no truth in that, those allegations that I benefitted from drugs are lies… The truth will come out in the right time),” the female senator said on the day of her detention.