De Lima asks SC to reconsider ruling on petition vs Duterte verbal tirades

Sen. Leila de Lima and President Rodrigo Duterte (File photos by LYN RILLON, and JOAN BONDOC / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima on Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its earlier resolution dismissing her habeas data petition seeking to protect herself from the verbal tirades of President Rodrigo Duterte.

De Lima’s counsel, Jose Manuel Diokno, filed a motion for reconsideration on her behalf which asked the high court to reconsider its resolution which she said, “has twisted the doctrine of presidential immunity out of all sense of meaning.”

The senator filed the motion after the Supreme Court dismissed her 2016 habeas data petition to stop the President’s discriminatory remarks against her.

READ: SC junks immunity test case vs. Duterte

Her petition seeks to stop the President from using government resources to gather personal information to be used against her.

She also wants the high court to order the destruction of the obtained pieces of personal information.

She said the SC decision dismissing her petition had “unduly” broadened the scope of presidential immunity to acts that had nothing to do with presidential powers, duties, and responsibilities.

“[T]he Resolution has twisted the doctrine of presidential immunity into a grotesque version of itself, inoculated the President from accountability for egregious conduct, and placed an insurmountable barrier to the search for truth and the vindication of basic rights,” De Lima said in her motion.

“The Resolution gives President Duterte untrammeled and unbridled power to slut-shame, discriminate, insult, offend and bad-mouth the petitioner for as long as he sits on his presidential throne,” she added.

De Lima said the resolution gave Duterte “unchecked power to do the same to any other woman who tickles his fancy – and whoever becomes his next target will have no legal remedy at all to stop him as long as he occupies the highest position in the land.”

“His next target could be anyone even someone we know or someone to whom we are close to or related,” she pointed out.

In her petition for habeas data, De Lima recalled the President had admitted his personal grudge against her way back when she investigated his alleged link with the Davao Death Squad when she was chair of the Commission on Human Rights.

She said that Duterte’s continued verbal attacks and threats against her had deprived her of an effective remedy in violation of her rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

“It is not disputed that petitioner is the victim of slut-shaming, discrimination as a woman, and psychological violence perpetrated by the highest executive official of our government,” she said.

“It is not disputed that President Duterte gathered information about petition’s private life – including, by his own admission, information from a foreign government – and broadcast it to the entire nation,” she added.

De Lima said these acts “clearly involve the wrongful collection and publication of her alleged private affairs, which she argued constitute unlawful interference with her privacy and unlawful attacks on her honor and reputation.”

She said the resolution of the high court violated the ICCPR which imposes a duty on the Philippine government to provide victims of gross human rights violations with the right to an effective, prompt and adequate remedy.

/atm