Cayetano-De Lima word war erupts over ‘biased’ probe
SENATOR Alan Peter Cayetano now wants “biased” Senator Leila de Lima to inhibit from the Senate investigation on the spate of killings in the country and just allow a “less polluted” and “less biased” senator to lead the probe.
But de Lima, the lead investigator as chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, immediately rejected Cayetano’s proposal.
Cayetano said he was drafting a letter asking de Lima to inhibit herself from the hearing.
“Kasi may prejudgment na sya eh. Makikita mo sa kanya, lahat ng pinatay summary killing na or extrajudicial killings (EJK)samantalang ang Commission on Human Rights mismo ang nagsabi na EJK yan kapagka hindi pinarusahan, hindi prinosecute, hindi pinursue yung kaso,” he said.
“So far ba sa lahat ng witnesses nila, hindi ba kinasuhan at hindi ba iniimbestigahan?” he asked, referring to the witnesses who were presented by de Lima during the hearing.
Cayetano suspected that the Senate probe initiated by de Lima was meant to deflect the issue of her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade.
“So ang question ko nga, 24 tayong senators, why not allow someone who is less polluted, who is less biased to do the investigation,” he said.
But De Lima rejected Cayetano’s call, saying she would not inhibit based on the opinion of the “defender” and “apologist” of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Senate.
Besides, De Lima said she saw no reason why she had to inhibit from the probe.
“No. Why should I..?” she said in an interview when sought for comment.
“I’d rather that the people judge me on whether or not I am being objective in the conduct of the inquiry. I’m not gonna base that to the opinion of someone who’s evidently been the defender and apologist of the President in the Senate.”
“Sino ba ang biased sa amin? Siya nga ang very biased in favor of the administration and EJKs from Day 1 of the hearing,” she said.
Besides, de Lima said inhibition was addressed to the personal discretion of the person being sought to inhibit.
“But there is simply no ground for any mandatory inhibition. But whether or not I will recuse myself is subject to my conscience, it’s subject to my discretion,” she said.
“And this is not a court of law. This is a fact-finding inquiry. So what bias is he talking about? I’m just trying to determine facts through witnesses, and you know, I want to help in terms of coming up with measures to address this phenomenon of summary executions.”
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