Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion's Protest during UAAP halftime break last Sept. 13
Dispatch from Crame No. 162

Even in the bleakest of days, the darkest of nights, and perhaps the most depressing of votes held so far this 17th Congress-- even counting the Death Penalty vote months before in the House of Reps-- we sometimes catch a glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel. Something that tells us that, maybe, things would eventually get better; that despite all the evil being done by a few powerful people, there is still a lot of good out there in the world.

That glimmer of better days and a better prospect for human rights in our country came in the form of a group of cheering squad members from Ateneo de Manila University, the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion, who held placards up high, calling for a stop to EJKs and for the upholding of human rights.

It wasn't just placards they were holding. That is hope for a brighter future for a nation that they lifted up high.

That this happened during the half-time break of a collegiate basketball game-- a day after so-called people's representatives in the HOR voted to give the CHR a P1,000 budget-- just adds to the awesomeness of what happened.

It shows that some heroes don't wear capes. That not all heroes are defined by one heroic act. That the better ones live their heroism on a daily basis by not selling out their principles for some gain. Anyone can be a hero, anywhere at anytime, just by standing up for what is right.

The so-called adults in the HOR might have shamed their nation by standing up to vote "Yes" last Tuesday night, but the Ateneans who stood up the following day put them all to shame with their unadulterated bravery by literally and symbolically tearing up their P1,000 vote.

That one act alone made sure that, no matter how hard some sociopathic, fentanyl-addled, aging wannabe dictator and his minions might try to do in order to bring human rights down, the fight for human rights will never waver. It will live on long after they and the evil they have wrought are dead and gone.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!