FILE PHOTO: Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto. PHOTO from Ralph Recto office
MANILA, Philippines— “Mr. President-elect, free Leila.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto aired this call as he bid goodbye to his colleagues in the Senate on Wednesday.
Recto’s term as a senator will end on June 30 but he will return to the lower chamber of Congress as representative of Batangas.
But before leaving the Senate, the senator made the “last roll call” on the floor, extolling his colleagues and telling some antics and funny stories about them.
Recto described De Lima as a “prisoner of conscience, punished for her courage, but whose spirit no prison walls could contain.”
“Trolls put her behind bars,” he said in his valedictory speech.
“The truth shall set her free. Mr. President-elect, free Leila,” Recto said, referring to President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
De Lima has been in jail since 2017 over what she has repeatedly described as trumped-up drug charges.
READ: Key witness vs De Lima recants, bares coercion
She lost her reelection bid in the last elections.
READ: After failed Senate bid, De Lima to focus on dismissal of drug cases
Before turning serious on De Lima’s case, Recto made some light and comic comments on some senators.
Recto, for instance, advised Senator Christopher “Bong” Go to “relish” his freedom as his “moonlighting days as a presidential aide is over.”
“But never give up your bisyo na magserbisyo,” he said.
“To the other half of the DDS, or Davao Dedicated Senators, Senator Bato (dela Rosa), I salute you for your ramrod straight integrity. Your laws are as good as chiseled in stone. Itaga mo sa bato!” Recto said.
Senator Cynthia Villar and her “Goldilocks principle” did not also escape Recto.
“To Ma’am Cynthia, from whom the country’s richest man gets his weekly allowance, your Goldilocks principle in making laws is the reason why they have become good ones,” he said.
“Ano ang Goldilocks principle? Remember the fable of the lugaw: Too hot, Papa Bear complains. Too cold, cries Baby Bear. Just right, says Mama Bear. ‘Pag sinabi ni Mama Bear na tama na ang timpla, ihain na!”
When he also delivered a farewell speech in the Senate 15 years ago, Recto recalled giving a message to his wife,Vilma Santos-Recto: “Honey, I’m home.”
“This time, let me end it with my text to her: “Honey, I’m going to your House.”
Santos-Recto is currently representing Batangas in the House and holding the House Deputy Speaker post until June 30.
RELATED STORY
‘Diplomatic push’ eyed for De Lima’s release as case reaches US Senate anew