De Lima on EU parliament call for her release: They know the truth

MANILA, Philippines— For detained Sen. Leila De Lima, the European Parliament, which has called on the government to release her,  knows the truth about the charges she is facing.

“Those European Parliament members calling for my immediate release and describing the charges against me as 'fabricated', 'spurious' and 'invented', know what they're talking about,” De Lima said in a handwritten letter dispatched from Camp Crame in Quezon City last Saturday.

“They know the truth, Mr. President. They don't buy your lies about me. So do a silent majority of your people,” she said.

De Lima’s handwritten statement came after President Rodrigo Duterte blasted some officials of the European Union anew saying they are “foolish” for calling for the senator’s release.

She said the EU parliament is not naïve for wanting her released. She explained that the parliament only happens to see political persecution against her.

The senator added that the members of the EU would not risk their individual reputations and of the political parties and government they represent if they are not convinced of her innocence.

“They know a case of political persecution when they see one. While ostensibly the charges against me are criminal offenses - drug trafficking (!!!) - and not a political one, the same are completely bogus as they are anchored on coerced, false testimonies, courtesy of your wicked lieutenants and operators,” De Lima wrote.

“They saw how you unleashed your arsenal of foul means, including invectives and misogynistic attacks against me. That yours is a deep-seated personal vendetta is too transparent that only the blind and the dumb would fail to see,” she added.

Last March 16, the European Parliament issued a joint resolution calling on the government to release De Lima.

The EP described the senator as "a human rights advocate and the highest profile critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign" as it requested to to drop all politically motivated charges against her and to end any further acts of harassment against her."

The same parliament also condemned the extrajudicial killings that Duterte critics have blamed on his war on drugs and has urged the Philippine government to investigate the killings. The government has insisted that there is no policy to encourage extrajudicial killings and that authorities have been investigating the killings, which the police now count as homicides.