Senator Leila de Lima. Philippine Daily Inquirer file photo / ERMA EDERA
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday urged Marine Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino to speak up for the truth and not be manipulated to testify against her on the drug charges she is facing.
“I am glad that Col. Marcelino’s ordeal is over. Mine, however, continues. Ang pakiusap ko lang sa kanya ngayon ay ito – now that he is a free man, may he continue to have the courage to always stand up for what is true, right and just,” De Lima said in dispatch from Camp Crame in Quezon City.
“Huwag sana siyang magpagamit kanino man para idiin pa ako sa mga kaso. He knows I am innocent,” she added.
De Lima’s statement came after Marcelino broke into tears after facing the Commission on Appointments (COA) at the Senate on Wednesday, as he recalled his yearl-ong detention after agents of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested him while allegedly inside a clandestine drug laboratory on Jan. 21, 2016.
READ: Marcelino in tears at CA over drug charges
Marcelino said his drug charges were “fabricated,” noting that it was backed by the Department of Justice’s ruling to drop the criminal complaint filed by PDEA and PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group against him.
With this, De Lima said Marcelino and her experience are somewhat part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s strategy to silence his critics.
“His and my experience only goes to show the malevolent strategies utilized by the Duterte government to persecute and target innocent individuals who are perceived to be enemies as well as those who they think ought to be silenced,” she said.
However, De Lima then noted that Marcelino only experienced half of what she suffered from the Duterte administration.
“But I must say that what Col. Marcelino has experienced is only half, if not less, of what I experienced and continue to experience under this Administration. In my case, I was subjected to all sorts of public shaming, vilification, and character assassination,” de Lima said. /jpv