Sen. Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — Detained Senator Leila De Lima admitted being irked and hurt when some people described her detention as “weather-weather lang.”
De Lima has been detained at Camp Crame in Quezon City for almost two years now over drug charges.
“What really irks me is when people – most of them well-meaning, but unintentionally infuriating – attempt to summarize my unjust detention and political persecution as a consequence of the political climate. ‘Weather-weather lang yan, Leila,’” she said in her latest statement to the media on Thursday.
“It infuriates and hurts me – this unfair oversimplification of what I am going through. It even implies that, when I was under better political climate, I did as my enemies now have done to me. I protest! Vehemently and indignantly.”
De Lima lamented that the people’s “oversimplification” of what she was going through “wrongly implied” that she targeted her enemies when she was under better political climate.
“I have persecuted no one for political reasons or personal vengeance. I have killed no one. I have stolen nothing. I have sold or traded no drugs. I have not conspired with anyone to engage in any criminal activity,” she said.
She said she did not also fabricate evidence and baseless charges.
Even when she was chair of the Commission on Human Rights and then secretary of the Department of Justice, De Lima said she valued truth, justice and the rule of law more than anything.
De Lima insisted that her unjust detention was simply borne out of the personal vendetta against her of the “powerful enemies” she has made while performing her duty.
“I am here, under detention, for no other reason than our efforts then at accountability led us up a trail that reached powerful and influential personalities: a former President, a Senate President, Senators, Congressmen, local government chief executives … and now even an incumbent President,” she further said. /cbb