EDITORIAL - Days of de Lima are numbered

Many legal experts see little or no way for Senator Leila de Lima to escape being arrested and jailed on drug charges. The moment that happens, the saga of De Lima will finally come full circle. She will be where she put former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo several years ago. But what makes her case more interesting is whether she will enjoy the same outcome as Arroyo.

Arroyo was ultimately cleared of the charges De Lima, as then justice secretary, filed against her. The big question is whether a similar vindication awaits De Lima. She can protest her innocence all she wants and can claim political harassment for all she cares. But except for anti-administration forces rather than real De Lima believers, her theatrics have really no takers.

The thing about de Lima is that a lot of Filipinos want to see her jailed not so much in relation to the charges she now faces but as a result of the way she handled the Arroyo affair, which even today continues to appall many people. It was an affair whose mere recall and remembrance makes whatever humanitarian sympathy that may be due De Lima vanish completely away.

For who can forget how de Lima, emboldened and empowered by her closeness to then president Noynoy Aquino, held Arroyo at the airport and prevented her from leaving for medical treatment abroad. For no other reason than her fear she might not return, De Lima ignored and set aside a Supreme Court ruling that said Arroyo was free to go and detained her instead.

It was only after Arroyo was held at the airport that charges were filed and a warrant was quickly issued. The rest is sad and sorry history. Arroyo spent some years in jail in cruel indignity until the charges against her were found without merit by the Supreme Court and thrown out. Now it is De Lima who is about to have her first taste of jail, only this time her stay might possibly be more warranted and justified.

To the credit of Arroyo, she has largely kept her silence, refusing to be drawn into the escalating disdain for De Lima and De Lima's noisy protestations of injustice and harassment. Unfortunately for her, she has little or no sympathizers. Not only has her Arroyo past caught up with her, but her alleged involvement in drugs at Bilibid and her dalliances with her married driver are just too much for the people to find some sympathy for her.