SENATOR Leila De Lima admitted being hurt after being branded as a drug lord “coddler” and “protector” and accused of accepting pay offs from convicts.
De Lima said she could have kept mum on the spate of killings in the country but she realized that calling for a Senate inquiry on the issue was the right thing to do.
She dismissed claim that her decision to investigate the killings as chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights has a political undertone.
“A matter as important as this, as serious as this, should transcend any political consideration and it’s the farthest from my mind doing things with political objective and I’m not that kind of a public servant,” the senator said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer Tuesday night.
De Lima was responding to a question if the Senate probe was politically motivated since she is part of the Liberal Party and the legislative leaders belong to President Duterte’s PDP-Laban.
Asked then why she was pursuing the probe despite what she claimed demolition jobs being waged against her by the President’s men, the senator said: “It’s the right thing to do. I could have (kept) mum about it and especially in light of these relentless, persistent viscous attacks, all sorts of dirt being thrown at me especially, masakit yan e na ang tawag sayo drug lord coddler, protector, tumatanggap sa mga convicts.”
“To put a stop to it, hindi na sana ako gagalaw, hindi na sana ako magsasalita but this is the right thing to do,” she said.
Asked again how she could convince the people that she was not a protector of big scale drug lords, De Lima said: “Kung nandito po kayo sa harapan ko,I will look at you straight in the eye and I will tell that’s a complete lie.”
“ Why should I be a coddler of this? Sinabi ko na nga po kanina ako nga po yung nag-raid sa kanila, ako yung nagpahirap sa kanila, ako ang nag-isolate sa kanila and then kinasuhan nila ako and then now, I’m a coddler?”
