MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday commended two US senators for their unfazed defense of her amid President Rodrigo Duterte’s “retaliatory moves.”
“Instead of getting intimidated by Duterte’s retaliatory moves, US Senators (Patrick) Leahy and (Richard) Durbin have bravely stood their ground,” De Lima said in a dispatch from Camp Crame in Quezon City where she is currently detained.
“(They) even called out the threat to deny PH visa to Americans. Senator Leahy described the act as ‘irrational,’ while Senator Durbin dubbed it as a ‘strong-arm tactic.’ They both nailed it on the head,” said de Lima.
The two American senators earlier introduced an amendment to the 2020 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill which sought to ban U.S. entry to Philippine officials proven to be behind the “wrongful imprisonment” of Senator Leila de Lima.
Last December 20, US President Donald Trump signed the 2020 national budget, which included that provision.
Under the said provision, the “Secretary of State shall apply subsection (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.
This prompted Duterte to order the Bureau of Immigration to deny the entry of Durbin and Leahy into the Philippines.
“The President is immediately ordering the Bureau of Immigration to deny U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy, the imperious, uninformed and gullible American legislators who introduced the subject provision in the U.S. 2020 Budget, entry to the Philippines,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said in a Palace briefing.
The Palace official added that should the U.S. enforce said ban, the Philippines will be requiring Americans to secure visas before entering the country.
Both Leahy and Durbin responded to this by reiterating their call to the Philippine government to release De Lima or at least to give her a fair trial.
“Thanks, Senators Leahy, Durbin and all other US lawmakers in both Houses of the US Congress that supported the Prohibition on Entry provision and led to its successful passage… This bipartisan support from high-ranking law-and-policymakers in the US has given me a gift I have been longing for: vindication,” said de Lima.
“Because these veteran US public officials would not be standing with me if they had any doubt about my innocence or the fact that my persecution is an attack, not just against me personally, but against human rights and human rights defenders,” she added.
“Maria Ressa, me and other advocates for democratic dissent and free expression have found formidable allies in you,” De Lima further said.
Leahy and Durbin have also shown support for Ressa, head of online news site Rappler, who had also incurred the wrath of Duterte.