De Lima ‘alarmed’ by Duterte pronouncements, calls for vigilance
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/Jilson Seckler Tiu
Senator-elect Leila de Lima expressed concern over the pronouncements of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte which she deemed alarming for a new leader who has not even assumed presidential powers fully.
Among those De Lima questioned were Duterte’s statement on giving a hero’s burial for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., pardoning former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, reinstatement of the death penalty and implementing the “shoot-to-kill” order against criminals.
READ: Duterte to order ‘shoot-to-kill’ for criminals, reinstate death penalty
“Dapat ngayon pa lang mangamba na tayo (As early as today, we should be alarmed). Let’s be really vigilant,” De Lima said after the legal team of vice presidential candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo held a media briefing at Microtel Ayala Technohub in Quezon City on Wednesday.
“Much as we would want to entertain some hope that we will have a good six years (under a Duterte administration), with the way things are going, it doesn’t give me any comfort that we’re looking at glory days. Quite a contrary,” De Lima said.
Adding insult to injury
In a recent interview, Duterte said he would allow Marcos to be buried at the (Libingan ng mga Bayani) heroes’ cemetery “to erase one of the hatreds” which persists among the Filipinos.
READ: Duterte on Marcos’ burial at heroes’ cemetery: It will erase one hatred in PH
De Lima, a former human rights commissioner, strongly opposed this plan of Duterte as it would mean totally forgetting the atrocities committed during martial law.
She said it would be a great insult to the human rights victims during the authoritarian regime of Marcos, whose son and namesake challenged Robredo in the vice presidential race.
“Wala tayong maayos na closure sa mga kaso na ‘yan (There is no proper closure to these cases) and then here you are going to endow a status of a hero to an aggressor. You will be adding insult to injury,” De Lima said. RAM
