The ban on Filipino officials involved in the detention of Sen. Leila de Lima from entering the United States written into the US budget for 2020 is not “fake news,” Malacañang said on Sunday.
Belying the claim of blogger RJ Nieto that there is no such provision in the US budget signed by US President Donald Trump on Dec. 20, the Palace confirmed the information on Sunday, citing verification made by Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez.
“I was talking to Ambassador Babes Romualdez. He said they checked the law, and it does exist. The ban does exist,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a radio interview.
On Saturday, Nieto, a supporter of President Duterte, questioned news of the ban, saying it was not in the text of the budget law and therefore fake news. His claim circulated on social media.
Human rights abusers
De Lima, who is detained on what she claims are fabricated drug charges, was arrested in 2017 after investigating, as chair of the Commission on Human Rights in 2009-2010, alleged extrajudicial killings in Davao when Mr. Duterte was mayor of that city and opening in 2016, as a junior senator, the thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in the President’s brutal war on drugs.
United States Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, and Richard Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, wrote the provision in the $4.7-trillion US budget, denying entry into the United States to Filipino officials involved in De Lima’s arrest and detention under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the US government to sanction foreign officials its sees as human rights abusers.
Although he attested to the existence of the ban, Panelo said, “It doesn’t matter to us whether it is true or not.”
“What is important is if they ban any government official, then we will enforce a visa requirement on Americans entering the Philippines and we will ban the two senators [who introduced the ban],” he said.
Mr. Duterte ordered a ban on Leahy and Durbin on Thursday night for interfering in Philippine domestic affairs. In announcing the ban on Friday, the Palace described the two Democrats as “imperious, uninformed and gullible.”
Panelo also said Americans, including Filipino-Americans, would also be required to get visas to travel to the Philippines. He said Mr. Duterte would also decline an invitation from Trump to visit Washington.
Mr. Duterte, Panelo said, will issue an executive order imposing the visa requirement on American citizens should the United States actually ban any Filipino official on account of De Lima’s detention.
Fair trial
Leahy responded on Twitter Sunday morning, calling on the Duterte administration to release De Lima or give her a fair trial rather than “irrationally threatening to deny visas to American citizens.”
Leahy also urged the Duterte administration to recognize Rappler CEO Maria Ressa “as a courageous Filipino exercising her right of free expression” rather than trying “to silence a journalist who has bravely dared to expose official corruption and abuse.”
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Sunday invited the staff of Leahy and Durbin to come to the Philippines and they would see for themselves that De Lima was getting a fair trial.
“I invite his (Leahy’s) staff to come over and pore over the evidence so far presented in court, instead of relying on so-called reports, which are at best secondhand evidence and at worst multiple hearsay,” Guevarra said in a statement.
“We will allow the legal staff of these senators to come [to the Philippines] and authorize them to go over the records and transcripts of the cases and observe the hearings, subject to reasonable regulations, so that they may enlighten their bosses,” he said.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., apparently unaware that De Lima’s trial has been going on since February, called on Sunday for the start of the senator’s trial without delay.
“Now only the start of her trial can justify her continued detention. No postponements should be granted,” Locsin tweeted.
“For the sake of our nation’s reputation the [Supreme Court] should set a 3 to 6 month trial. Daily. Open to media,” he said.
Privilege, not right
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, said the Duterte administration should not challenge the US travel ban by filing a diplomatic protest since Trump had already upheld the order by signing the budget law.
“It’s pointless to file a [diplomatic protest] because there’s already a conclusion of their legislators. It has no effect on us anyway because we have our own [judicial] process,” Pimentel said.
“We should not protest because they will not change [the budget provision]. It has been done. It’s already a fact,” he added.
Pimentel reminded his fellow public officials that entering a foreign country is just a privilege and not a right, a reasoning Mr. Duterte’s allies cited after Hong Kong authorities barred two of his critics, former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, from entering the former British colony earlier this year for accusing Chinese President Xi Jinping of crimes against humanity over China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea.
“The arrival of foreigners is totally controlled by the [host] country, since it’s a sovereignty issue. It’s up to the country if they will let a foreigner in or not,” Pimentel said.
As to government officials whose assets in the United States may be frozen, Pimentel said: “That’s your fault. Why are you keeping bank accounts in America? Why do you own a condominium or house there?” —WITH REPORTS FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN, MARLON RAMOS AND CHRISTIA MARIE RAMOS