De Lima slams blogger on entry ban: What fake documents?

MANILA, Philippines —Sen. Leila de Lima on Saturday hit back at pro-administration blogger RJ Nieto for claiming that the supposed entry ban to the United States of her alleged persecutors was “fake.”

In a statement, De Lima slammed Nieto for merely “looking at one document and, thereafter, promptly concluding that it does not contain the provision banning my persecutors from entry into the US.”

De Lima was reacting to the article published by Nieto on Manila Bulletin, saying the supposed ban of the officials allegedly behind her detention was “nowhere to be found in the final version that was signed by US President Donald Trump.”

The detained senator then gave him a lecture on how preparations for the US budget was done.

“In this case, the US Congress passed a large, single appropriations bill called an ‘omnibus bill’, in which the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations (SFOPs) language is included. The Final Bill is what you have presumably browsed,” she said.

“But the omnibus bill includes by reference as an intrinsic part thereof the Final Explanatory Statement, which makes reference to accompanying guiding reports,” she added.

The senator said that “on the first page of the Explanatory Statement, it states that unless specifically negated therein, the Report language originally included in the House and Senate SFOPs bill remains in force.”

Under “Prohibition on Entry” of the Senate SFOPs bill Report that could be seen on page 93, it stated that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was allowed to “apply sub-section (c) to foreign government officials about whom the Secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of… Senator Leila de Lima who was arrested in the Philippines in 2017.”

The subsection (c) referred to is the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act of the United States, which allows the US to sanction foreign government officials it sees as human rights abusers.

De Lima said “the provision banning my persecutors” stated in the Senate SFOPs bill report “was not specifically negated by the Explanatory Report.”

“Go back to the Explanatory Statement and ask yourself—does it specifically negate the language you found on page 93? You will see that it does not,” the senator told Nieto.

“Therefore, the entry ban is in effect. In short, it’s not fake news,” she said.