By Oluwakemi

With the term of the current United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon coming to an end, his replacement has emerge in the person of Filipino Senator, Leila de Lima, who is the first woman to be elected to that position.

Lima defeated 10 others including men to  emerge as  Ban Ki-moon’s replacement. Earlier in the month, Ban Ki Moon had  pleaded that his  replacement should be a woman.  According to Ban “it’s high time now” for a female secretary-general, stressing that women should be given equal.

This is the first time a woman is holding the leading role in the United Nations since its formation in 1945.

Leila de Lima is a Filipino lawyer and senator. She was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as Chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights in May 2008. She served the commission until June 30, 2010, after resigning from its chairmanship to accept her appointment by President Benigno S. Aquino III as the Philippines’ new Secretary of the Department of Justice.

She resigned from this office five years later, on October 12, 2015, to focus on her candidacy for a seat in the Senate of the Philippines in what was then an oncoming 2016 Philippine general election. She eventually won one of the twelve contested seats and will serve as a Philippine senator in the Philippines’ 17th Congress.

Meanwhile , the Philippines’ brash-talking president threatened Sunday to withdraw his country from the United Nations and lashed out at U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.