De Lima hits death of girl caught in firefight between cops, drug suspect

MANILA, Philippines — Detained Sen. Leila de Lima on Wednesday condemned the killing of a 3-year-old girl who was hit by a bullet during an alleged firefight between policemen and a drug suspect in Rodriquez, Rizal.

Myka Ulpina was the latest to be added to a growing list of children who had died in connection with President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

The police earlier claimed that Ulpina’s father, Renato Dolorfina, used her as human shield to evade arrest during a buy-bust operation conducted by the police inside their house on Saturday.

“No words can express the anger I feel for what happened to Myka, whose life was sacrificed to Mr. Duterte’s fake war against illegal drugs,” De Lima said in her latest handwritten dispatch from her detention cell in Camp Crame.

Life wasted

“Another life was again wasted and added to the thousands of innocent victims of this spurious government campaign that has led to nothing,” she added.

De Lima, who was indicted for drug trafficking after her scathing criticism of the President’s drug war, maintained that the administration’s antinarcotics strategy was a “sham and a complete failure as it failed to arrest the entry of illegal drugs into the country.”

She also assailed the Philippine National Police for claiming that the antidrug campaign was a success even after Mr. Duterte himself had repeatedly admitted that it was a failure.

De Lima said that PNP chief, Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, issued the “declaration to justify the brutal killings under the Duterte regime.”

“They conveniently set aside the fact that innocents continue to die because of this murderous drug war,” she stressed.

“Does this government consider this a victory? Do they consider it a victory when after three years, billions of pesos in illegal drugs are being smuggled into the country while the real drug lords still go scot-free?” De Lima asked. —Marlon Ramos