Palace spurns US solon’s demand to free De Lima

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has described as “nonsense” the renewed call of a US lawmaker for the release of opposition Sen. Leila de Lima from detention.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo refused to comment on the appeal of US Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for the release of De Lima, who has been in jail for two years.

‘Nonsense’

“We don’t respond to nonsense,” Panelo said in a message to reporters on Sunday.

The Palace official made the remark a day after Rubio took to Twitter to demand the release of De Lima, a critic of President Duterte and a former justice secretary.

De Lima has been detained since February 2017 in connection with illegal drugs charges filed in a Muntinlupa City court.

She is accused of pocketing payoffs from convicted drug lords at the national penitentiary during her stint as justice secretary of the then Aquino administration.

“Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima, a critic of extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s so-called ‘war on drugs,’ has spent the last two years in prison on bogus charges. I call on the Philippine government to unconditionally release her,” Rubio said.

In April, Rubio was among five US senators who appealed for her release and the dropping of criminal charges against online news website Rappler and its CEO Maria Ressa.

The month before, six US lawmakers also filed a resolution calling for De Lima’s release.