De Lima claim to ‘moral high ground’ prompted Duterte attack

Malacañang on Thursday, August 18, 2016, said President Rodrigo Duterte (right) attacked Senator Leila de Lima (left) and portrayed her as ‘immoral’ because she claimed having the ‘moral high ground’ in criticizing the Chief Executive and his war on illegal drugs. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

Malacañang today said the attack of President Rodrigo R. Duterte (PRRD) on Sen. Leila de Lima was prompted by her moral posturing and assumption that the administration’s war on drugs was to blame for the spate of extrajudicial killings.

The President’s spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte understood that “public discourse has its dynamics and parameters as can be witnessed in his exchange with Supreme Court Justice Sereno.”

“However, he has taken umbrage with Sen. De Lima’s approach, of not only taking the moral high ground with regard to drug-related deaths, but her assumptions that said deaths are directly attributable to PRRD’s war on drugs,” Abella said.

READ: De Lima bewails Duterte ‘abuse, misuse of power’ | Duterte blasts female senator: She’s ‘immoral’, an ‘adulterer’

The President objects to De Lima’s hasty conclusions and grandstanding, he said.

“Apparently, PRRD is appalled by Sen. De Lima’s history of jumping to conclusions about the President’s culpability without sufficient evidence, lack of appreciation of the magnitude of the menace, and taking the opportunity to grandstand in spite of the gravity of the situation,” he said.

Duterte on Wednesday linked De Lima to the illegal drug trade and castigated her for being immoral. He said her supposed lover who was also her driver had collected payoffs for her./rga

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