Leila Norma Eulalia Josefa Magistrado de Lima (born August 27, 1959) is a Filipino politician, lawyer, human rights activist and law professor who has served as the representative for Mamamayang Liberal, the sectoral wing of the Liberal Party, since 2025. De Lima previously served as a senator of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 and as secretary of justice from 2010 to 2015.
Born in Iriga, Camarines Sur, de Lima was educated at the De La Salle University and the San Beda College of Law. She passed the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1985 and began her legal career as a staff member of Associate Justice Isagani Cruz. From 2008 to 2010, she served as the chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In 2010, President Benigno Aquino III appointed de Lima to his cabinet as secretary of justice. She would hold the position until 2015, when she sought a seat in the Senate of the Philippines. In 2016, de Lima was elected to the Senate, having run under the Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid. She was defeated in her re-election bid in 2022 under Team Robredo–Pangilinan.
Known as a vocal critic of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, she was arrested in 2017 under charges linked to the New Bilibid Prison drug trafficking scandal during her term as justice secretary. Later that year, she was awarded the Prize for Freedom by Liberal International. She was held in pretrial detention until a court granted her petition for bail in 2023, although she served out her remaining term as senator and filed legislation while held.
Following her release, de Lima successfully ran as the first nominee of the Mamamayang Liberal party-list in the 2025 House of Representatives elections.
Early life and education De Lima was born on August 27, 1959, in Iriga, Camarines Sur, where she was raised. She is the eldest daughter of former Philippine Commission on Elections commissioner Vicente de Lima and Norma (née Magistrado).
De Lima completed her basic education at La Consolacion Academy (now La Consolacion College Iriga), graduating as class valedictorian. She graduated in 1980 from the De La Salle University with an AB History and Political Science degree. She finished her Bachelor of Laws (Salutatorian) degree at the San Beda College of Law in 1985. She placed eighth in the 1985 Philippine Bar Examinations with an 86.26% bar rating.
Legal career De Lima began her career as a staff member of Supreme Court Associate Justice Isagani Cruz from 1986 to 1989. She subsequently entered private practice in the 1990s, specializing in election law. She also taught law at San Beda College of Law from 1986 to 1994 and from 2006 to 2007 and worked as secretary of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal from 1993 to 1995.
Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (2008–2010) Leila de Lima was appointed as the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, serving from 2008 to 2010. Her two-year term was marked by high-profile cases such as the Davao Death Squad, human rights cases against general Jovito Palparan, and the Maguindanao massacre in 2009.
Secretary of Justice (2010–2015)
In 2010, President Benigno Aquino III offered her the position of justice secretary, which she accepted. Her first high-profile case was the Manila hostage crisis, where eight Hong Kong nationals were killed. De Lima led the Incident Investigation and Review Committee that examined the botched police rescue; the panel's report recommended sanctions and criminal charges against several officials deemed responsible for mishandling the crisis.
In December 2010, following President Aquino's order, she oversaw the dropping of charges against the "Morong 43", a group of 43 health workers who had been arrested in 2010 under suspicion of rebellion. The Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew the cases after evidence emerged that the 43 had been illegally arrested and detained, leading to the release of most of the detainees.
In November 2011, de Lima directed the Bureau of Immigration to bar former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from leaving the country to seek medical treatment, citing pending investigations into Hello Garci scandal. This enforcement of a DOJ "watch list" travel order defied a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court that would have allowed Arroyo to travel. Days later, a joint DOJ–Commission on Elections panel chaired by de Lima filed an electoral sabotage case against Arroyo in connection with alleged cheating in the 2007 elections. A court in Pasay promptly issued an arrest warrant (electoral sabotage being non-bailable), and Arroyo was arrested and placed under hospital detention. The Supreme Court demanded that de Lima explain why she should not be cited for contempt for ignoring its TRO. In 2018, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the DOJ directive that de Lima had invoked to bar Arroyo's travel.
In early 2013, de Lima acted on the investigation of a shootout in Atimonan, Quezon, on January 16, 2013, in which 13 men were killed at a police-military checkpoint under suspect circumstances. A probe by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) found it was a "rubout" rather than a legitimate shootout, rooted in a turf rivalry over illegal gambling. President Aquino approved the NBI's findings, and de Lima's DOJ filed multiple murder charges against the police and soldiers involved, including a senior police superintendent who led the operation. De Lima publicly stated that evidence showed the victims were summarily executed (none of the suspects had fired back), underscoring that the operation's apparent objective was to kill all the targets.
Her department secured the arrest of Jovito Palparan, a retired Army general accused of orchestrating the disappearance of student activists during the Arroyo administration. Palparan had been indicted in 2011 for the 2006 disappearance of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño and had gone into hiding. In August 2014, the NBI tracked down and arrested Palparan in Manila. He was later convicted of kidnapping in 2018, after de Lima's tenure.
De Lima became best known for her role in uncovering the pork barrel scam. In 2013, she directed the DOJ and NBI to investigate allegations that businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles had conspired with lawmakers to siphon off their discretionary funds into fake non-governmental organizations. The investigation gathered testimonies from whistleblowers and led to the filing of complaints, which were subsequently elevated to the Office of the Ombudsman for formal charges. By mid-2014, the Ombudsman indicted several prominent legislators – including senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla – on plunder and graft charges for allegedly funneling huge sums of public money to Napoles' bogus projects. All three senators were arrested and detained in 2014 as their cases went to trial. The DOJ's work with state auditors and the Ombudsman in the pork barrel cases was credited with "capping off" Aquino's anti-corruption drive, as it was the first time in Philippine history that multiple senior politicians were jailed pending trial for corruption. However, the pork barrel prosecutions also attracted allegations of selective justice. Critics highlighted that the charged officials were mostly from the opposition, saying that de Lima and the administration spared allies from similar scrutiny; only one political ally of Aquino's was implicated and he faced lesser offenses. De Lima responded by saying that the cases were pursued "without fear or favor" based on evidence. In August 2015, when the Supreme Court allowed Enrile (then age 91) to post bail on humanitarian grounds, de Lima openly criticized the court's decision – warning that it set a "banana republic" precedent of special treatment for the powerful.
During the 2015 Iglesia ni Cristo leadership controversy and its subsequent protests, de Lima was criticized for meddling in the internal affairs of the denomination.
Senator (2016–2022) Elections De Lima ran as a senatorial candidate for the 2016 general elections under the Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid () of the Liberal Party. She finished 12th, after amassing more than 14 million votes.
In 2022, de Lima ran for reelection as senator under the Liberal Party, but lost after placing in the 23rd position (only the top 12 candidates are elected).
Tenure
De Lima condemned the Philippine drug war and urged Congress to investigate. In a privilege speech before the Senate on August 2, 2016, she called for an end to vigilante killings of drug suspects. De Lima lamented the indifference of President Rodrigo Duterte's government to extrajudicial killings and warned that more innocent people will suffer if the killings fail to stop.
De Lima chaired the Philippine Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights. On August 22, 2016, she opened a Senate inquiry on extrajudicial killings and police operations under the drug war.
Imprisonment and trial (2017–2024)
On August 17, 2016, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte alleged that de Lima was having an affair with her driver, Ronnie Dayan, who Duterte also alleged functioned as de Lima's collector for drug protection money when she was justice secretary. Duterte also alleged that Dayan had been using drugs. Duterte later claimed that he had in his possession wiretaps and ATM records which confirmed his allegations which he had received from an unnamed foreign country. In September 2016, de Lima was removed as chair of the Senate Justice and Human Rights committee investigating extrajudicial killings. She later admitted that she had a relationship with Dayan many years ago. Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre called on convicted drug lords, former prison officials and police officers as prime witnesses against de Lima in a congressional probe on illegal drug trafficking in the New Bilibid Prison. Dayan went into hiding after being advised by de Lima to not attend the House probe, but was captured days later.
Rolando Espinosa, then-mayor of Albuera, Leyte, corroborated allegations that de Lima benefited from the illegal drug activities of his son Kerwin in Eastern Visayas. Included in the mayor's affidavit was a picture of de Lima with Kerwin Espinosa in Baguio. Kerwin Espinosa later testified that he gave her a total of to help finance her senatorial campaign in 2016.
On July 19, 2019, the PNP–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed charges against de Lima and other members of the opposition for "sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal, and obstruction of justice". On February 10, 2020, she was cleared of all charges.
Retracted testimonies In late April 2022, Kerwin Espinosa recanted his statements on the case, and said that he was coerced by the police after his father was killed in jail. The Department of Justice downplayed his recantation, saying it did not affect their case against de Lima, as he was not a witness. In October 2024, Espinosa testified before the House of Representatives that former police chief Bato dela Rosa forced him to link de Lima to the drug trade.
In early May 2022, Rafael Ragos, former Bureau of Corrections director general and another witness in de Lima's drug case, recanted his testimony. Ragos previously testified that de Lima accepted from him via drug lord Peter Co, while she was Secretary of Justice, and that it was later used to fund her senatorial campaign in 2016. Ragos alleged that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II coerced him to lie to implicate de Lima. Aguirre denied the accusation.
Co-accused Ronnie Dayan also recanted his testimony in May 2022. Dayan alleged that Representative Reynaldo Umali had coerced him to lie in his 2016 testimony in Congress.