MANILA - After spending more than six years in a cramped jail cell in the Philippines, former senator Leila de Lima, a fierce critic of former president Rodrigo Duterte, walked free on Monday when she was granted bail.

The 63-year-old scored a legal victory when a judge granted her petition for bail on her drug-related charge, saying the prosecution had not sufficiently proven “strong” guilt.

She was accused of abetting drug operations at the national jail when she was justice minister and receiving 70 million pesos (S$1.7 million) in proceeds from inmates.

De Lima has maintained her innocence, insisting that the charges against her were fabricated.

“Free at last! Six years, eight months, 91 days... So I’m released after 2,454 days. I really cannot describe how I’m feeling right now,” she said at her first press conference after her release.

While the court has not decided on this case, Judge Gener Gito allowed de Lima and her co-accused – former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Bucayu, former aides Ronnie Dayan and Joenel Sanchez, and alleged bagman Jose Adrian Dera – to post bail on Monday.

In assessing “the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution, the Court is of the firm view and holds that accused de Lima, Bucayu, Dayan, Sanchez and Dera should be allowed to post bail as the prosecution was not able to discharge its burden of establishing that the guilt of the said accused is strong”, Judge Gito said.

De Lima posted bail of 300,000 pesos and walked out of her detention cell at the Philippine National Police’s headquarters in Quezon City at around 7pm.

She was jailed on Feb 24, 2017, after the Duterte government filed three cases against her, just months after she launched a Senate inquiry into the then President for his bloody drug war that killed thousands of drug suspects.

The two earlier cases, in which de Lima was accused of extorting money from inmates to help fund her 2016 senatorial run, were thrown out by the courts in February 2021 and May 2023, after key witnesses recanted their testimonies. They said they were coerced into testifying against de Lima.

Rights groups widely consider de Lima the most high-profile political detainee of the Duterte regime.

She has received numerous awards and recognitions in past years for relentlessly speaking out against Mr Duterte’s brutal and faulty policies, even as she remained under detention – her staff posted statements from her on social media and shared them with reporters after visiting her in jail.

Asked if she would pursue cases against Mr Duterte, de Lima said she will discuss her next steps with her lawyers.

“God forgive him and God bless him. That’s all I’m going to say for now. I want to say many other things to him, but not tonight. I don’t want to be political sounding tonight, because this is a moment of joy. He knows what he did to me,” the former senator said.

For now, de Lima plans to travel to Camarines Sur province, south of Manila, to reunite with her ailing 91-year-old mother, whom she has not seen in four years.

“It’s a very beautiful day for us,” her brother, Mr VicBoy de Lima, told The Straits Times.

He said there was spontaneous applause from those in the courtroom when the judge read out his decision.

“My sister exclaimed, ‘Freedom!’” Mr de Lima said. “Of course we were so emotional. Her friends were there, her lawyers were there. They were congratulating each other and hugging each other.”

It has been a long and lonely six years for de Lima during her detention in Manila.

She was granted furlough twice: two days in August 2019 to visit her sick mother, and three days in April 2021 for a hospital visit. In February 2022, she was allowed to make a video call with her mother, who had Covid-19.

Eight months later, de Lima survived what she described as a “near-death experience” after she was taken hostage in an attempted prison break by detained militants.

An inmate blindfolded her, held her at knifepoint and said he would kill her out of desperation, after the police killed two of his companions in a shoot-out. A police officer managed to rescue de Lima after shooting her hostage-taker.

The tide has slowly been turning in favour of de Lima since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr succeeded Mr Duterte in June 2022. Mr Marcos said he would not interfere in de Lima’s cases.

The President also said he would protect his predecessor from the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) probe into Mr Duterte’s drug war for crimes against humanity.

Mr Marcos said the Philippines is “disengaging” with the ICC, with his government blocking its attempts to push through with the investigation.