Leila hurt after being tagged as drug lord coddler

SENATOR  Leila  De Lima  admitted being  hurt  after being branded  as a drug  lord “coddler” and  “protector” and accused of accepting pay offs from convicts.

De Lima said she could have kept mum on the spate of killings in the country but she realized that calling for a Senate inquiry on the issue was the right thing to do.

She dismissed claim that her decision to investigate the  killings as chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights has a political undertone.

“A matter as important as this, as serious as this, should transcend any political consideration and it’s the farthest from my mind doing things with political objective and I’m not that kind of a public servant,” the senator said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer Tuesday night.

De Lima was responding to a question if the Senate probe was politically  motivated since she is part of the Liberal Party and  the legislative  leaders  belong to President Duterte’s PDP-Laban.

Asked  then why  she was  pursuing the probe  despite what she  claimed demolition  jobs being waged against her by the  President’s men, the senator said: “It’s the right thing to do. I  could have (kept) mum about  it and especially in light of these relentless, persistent viscous attacks, all sorts of dirt being  thrown at me  especially,  masakit yan e na ang tawag  sayo drug lord coddler,  protector, tumatanggap sa mga  convicts.”

“To put a stop to it, hindi na sana ako gagalaw, hindi na sana ako magsasalita but this is the right thing to do,” she  said.

Asked  again how she could convince the  people that  she was not a protector of  big scale  drug lords,  De Lima said: “Kung nandito po kayo sa harapan ko,I will look  at you straight in the eye and I will tell that’s a complete lie.”

“ Why should  I be  a coddler of this? Sinabi ko na nga po kanina ako nga po yung nag-raid sa kanila, ako yung nagpahirap sa kanila, ako ang nag-isolate sa kanila and then kinasuhan nila ako and then now, I’m a coddler?”