MANILA, Philippines— Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan lambasted lawyer Jude Josue Sabio for being “balimbing” (a turncoat) as the latter plans to withdraw his complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Sabio brought the case before the ICC in 2017, accusing the President and allies for allegedly committing crimes against humanity.
But in a 28-page sworn statement, the lawyer wants the court to trash the complaint as it was supposedly just a part of the political propaganda of the opposition led by the Liberal Party (LP).
Pangilinan, LP president, hit Sabio’s move.
“No. 1, after his 180-degree turn, he has no credibility whatsoever. The public should reject this balimbing. He is lying and he knows it,” the senator said in a statement on Wednesday.
“No. 2, the bodies of thousands of EJK’d Filipinos is proof of a man-made disaster, if not mass murder as government policy, that the ICC is mandated to investigate and address,” he added. EJK stands for extrajudicial killing.
“Instead of political attacks by the administration,” Pangilinan said everyone should focus on the thousands of people affected by a series of natural disasters that recently hit the country such as the successive earthquakes in Mindanao, the Christmas typhoon and the recent Taal Volcano eruption.
The senator also cited the overseas Filipino workers trapped in the Middle East amid the latest tension between Iran and the United States.
“At dahil nalipat and 11 billion pesos na calamity fund sa intelligence fund, dapat ‘atang bawiin natin ang halagang ito sa harap ng maraming sakunang kinakaharap ng pamilyang Pilipino,” Pangilinan said.
(And because the P11 billion budget for calamity fund was realigned to intelligence fund, maybe we should get this back amid the many calamities that the Filipino families are facing)