Since 2017, de Lima has served most of her six-year term from behind bars. With no internet or television, she has received news through a daily communications packet, sending back handwritten bills and resolutions.

On Tuesday, de Leon had new material to stir the crowd of about 40,000. The day before, former corrections bureau chief Rafael Ragos recanted his testimony about de Lima’s alleged involvement in the drug trade inside the Philippines’ main prison. Another witness for the prosecution, drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa, recanted last week.

Both men said they were coerced by Department of Justice officials to deliver testimony that precipitated de Lima’s 2017 arrest. De Lima, who was secretary of justice in a previous administration, has maintained her innocence.

“Leila de Lima has been imprisoned for five years, and they ask for forgiveness? Is that enough?” de Leon asked the crowd, leading them in chants for justice and de Lima’s release.

The senator’s case is among the human rights violations that have plagued outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte since the start of his six-year term.

De Lima had launched Senate inquiries into Duterte’s violent war on drugs, which has led to more than 6,000 deaths at the hands of police and an additional 30,000 carried out by vigilantes, according to Amnesty International.

Claiming its own internal probe, the Duterte administration asked the International Criminal Court to defer its investigation of the drug war, which was the only recourse for victims and families as the president has reshaped the justice system.

By the time he leaves office in June, Duterte will have appointed 12 of the 15 Supreme Court justices. Allies of the president in Congress filed articles of impeachment against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, leading to her ouster by her colleagues in 2018. Before an election season ban on judicial appointments, Duterte in March placed 36 new judges in regional and municipal trial courts.

“It will outlast him and his successor,” said Edre Olalia, secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, a group of human rights defenders.

Leading the race to succeed Duterte is Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, son and namesake of the late dictator. Marcos is running with Duterte’s daughter Sara. How Marcos will act on human rights is unclear, as he has eschewed presidential debates and media interviews.

“Bongbong Marcos from the get-go will face protests,” said Carlos Conde, senior researcher for Asia at Human Rights Watch.

“There’s going to be no honeymoon period. He probably won’t pursue the drug war as Duterte pursued it. He wouldn’t work for accountability but he probably wouldn’t want to be seen as worsening human rights here so as not to raise the hackles against him and his family.”

The president’s initiative will be necessary for filing to dismiss charges against de Lima or prosecuting extrajudicial killings. “What matters is the administration and the Department of Justice,” Olalia said.

Among the extrajudicial victims since 2016 have been 22 media workers, as tallied by the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines. Last year, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize, signifying the duress that the industry has operated under for the past six years.

Duterte allies in Congress also declined to renew the franchise of major broadcaster ABS-CBN, forcing its radio and television networks off the air in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and before the current election season. The network had aired opposition ads critical of the administration.

A statement on Tuesday from the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines does not bode well for press freedom under Marcos.

“We express grave concern over online attacks against some of our members by supporters of presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr and the alarming difficulty we have faced in getting his clear, coherent and substantial explanations on issues imbued with public and national interest,” the group said.

Marcos has denied that rights were violated during the administration of his father, who declared martial law in 1972, then fled the country in 1986. A senatorial candidate, human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares, suffered torture during martial law as an 18-year-old student activist.

With two witnesses recanting their testimony, international groups including Human Rights Watch, the Makati Business Council as well as presidential and senatorial candidates called on the Duterte administration to release de Lima from prison and drop the drug charges against her.

“She won’t make it on May 7, but surely she’ll be released by the end of the year,” de Leon, de Lima’s lawyer, told Nikkei Asia. He referred to the last day of campaigning, when candidates are expected to hold their biggest rallies. De Leon said the defence will likely subpoena Espinosa and Ragos as witnesses.

De Lima is running for reelection in the Senate slate of incumbent vice president Leni Robredo, the de facto opposition leader. “Of all the candidates, she was the one who really made a commitment not just to the investigations but also to stop the drug war,” Conde of Human Rights Watch said.

Judith, a resident of Iloilo City, came to Robredo’s rally on Tuesday carrying a sign reading, “Free Leila Now”. She said she became a supporter of de Lima’s after the senator authored a bill to provide conditional cash grants to low-income families so they could afford to better nourish themselves. It became law in 2019 as de Lima was spending her second year in prison.

“The government was running well in the beginning,” Judith said of the Duterte administration. “But if they can’t hold you by the neck, they’ll tighten their grip until you can’t bear it anymore.”