De Lima to file case vs Rody before yearend

MANILA, Philippines - “Bring them on!”

This was Sen. Leila de Lima’s response to the cases that have been filed against her as well as those forthcoming from the allies of President Duterte.

In turn, De Lima said she would file a case against the President and his allies before the end of the year.

“He is responsible for all of this. Do you think they will do all of this if this was not the desire of the President? He will be the principal respondent in all of the cases that I will be filing,” she said in a forum at the Senate yesterday.

De Lima also accused former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and at least two senators allegedly involved in the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam of taking advantage of the current situation to put her down.

The President has repeatedly accused De Lima of being a protector of the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption has filed a supplemental complaint against De Lima before the Department of Justice, which contains the sworn statements of the witnesses who appeared in the inquiry conducted by the House of Representatives on the proliferation of illegal drugs in the national penitentiary.

During the inquiry, several convicts testified that De Lima, when she was still justice secretary, received drug money from them.

In the end, the House justice committee, in its report, did not recommend the filing of criminal charges against De Lima.

The House minority bloc came out with its own report yesterday, recommending the filing of graft, bribery and drug-related cases against De Lima.

De Lima said she was expecting nothing but more lies and fabrications in the cases filed against her by allies of the President.

“Where did they get these so-called evidence again? Those so-called affidavits insofar as they would again point to me as involved in the drug trade: alleged coddler, alleged protector, alleged recipient of drug money, these are all lies so they have no added weight as far as I am concerned. These are just further fabrications of evidence. Invent pa more,” De Lima said.

As far as the House minority is concerned, De Lima said that most of its members were not really from the opposition but consisting of people with their own agendas.

She said that they were no different from the legislators and other government officials who were openly supporting Duterte in the sense that they were taking their cue from the President in his campaign against her.

“They’re exploiting that part of the President, that weakness on the part of the President of being vindictive to serve their respective agendas,” De Lima said.

De Lima said that she was referring to the personalities who were adversely affected by her actions then as justice secretary, including Arroyo, now deputy House speaker and Pampanga representative, and her allies as well as the senators implicated in the PDAF scam. 

De Lima stopped Arroyo from leaving the country in 2011 supposedly to seek treatment abroad despite a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court. There were fears at the time that Arroyo might no longer return if various charges were to be filed against her.

“They are now allies, the GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) forces and PDAF senators. They are issuing orders to some people to also make my life difficult,” she said.

De Lima said it was clear that all these personalities were intertwined now with their lawyers seen representing the various clients who had been speaking out against her, including the convicts at NBP.

“They have found their way into the circle of the President. They are exploiting the vendetta of the President against me. They are probably thinking that it’s payback time for simply doing my job as secretary of justice,” De Lima said.

“Is there anything fair, is there anything just in what they are doing to me? Up to my last breath I will maintain and profess innocence because that is the truth, I have nothing to do with drug trade either within or outside Bilibid,” she added.

Profile of narco politician?

De Lima fits the profile of a narco politician, according to the “minority report” of lawmakers in the House of Representatives.

In the 15-page report made by congressmen belonging to the minority bloc, De Lima should be charged for drug trafficking, graft, bribery and for violating the Code of Conduct for government officials when the former justice secretary allowed the proliferation of illegal drugs in the NBP.– With Delon Porcalla, Evelyn Macairan