Weaponizing Lawfare in The Philippines
[Prefatory Note: The following text is the transcript of my presentation by video transmission to a Forum held in Manila on February 21, 2020 in support of Senator Leila De Lima who has been detained in prison for many months on spurious charges of drug trafficking. Such a case is an example of ‘weaponizing law’ (regressive lawfare) to carry out the anti-democratic policies of a fairly elected autocrat, which in the case of Rodrigo Duterte, despite leaving by now a long trail of blood-stained abuse, retains an approval rating of more than 80%.
