De Lima accuses Gueverra of ‘feigning ignorance’ on her drug cases

Sen. Leila de Lima. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday said that Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra “feigned ignorance” regarding her drug cases that were charged against her in 2017.

The detained lawmaker said that her cases are not ordinary lawsuits and are instead politically charged persecutions that government pressed against her.

De Lima filed for bail on Monday for three of the drug charges filed against her at Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 saying that the government did not present enough evidence that will support the cases.

“Guevarra condescendingly asks why it is only now that I applied for bail. A feigned ignorance of what my drug cases are all about, or what they truly are, is what I sense from him,” said de Lima in a statement that was coursed through Camp Crame.

“We know that these are not ordinary cases. These are cases of political persecution with the whole power of government brought to bear on me. From the very start, it is [President Rodrigo] Duterte himself who targeted me and ordered his whole government to throw me in jail by hook or by crook.

De Lima, who was a former secretary of the Department of Justice, was an ardent critic of Duterte and his drug war that resulted in thousands of deaths.