Philippine leader’s top critic wages poll battle from jail

By JIM GOMEZ
Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine senator who is one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s staunchest critics has been waging an uphill campaign for reelection from a high-security jail. Sen. Leila de Lima has been locked up in the main police camp in the capital for more than five years and is prohibited from campaigning across the country. She has instead sent her life-size cutout image, which her aides display to crowds on the campaign trail. Despite the years of isolation, de Lima said in an interview with The Associated Press from her detention compound that she will fight on. She blames Duterte and his deputies of fabricating the drug-linked charges that landed her in jail.