De Lima threatens officials linking her to drug trade

Senator Leila de Lima (left) is urging officials like Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre (middle) and NBI Director Dante Gierran (right) not allow themselves ‘to be used’ against her. INQUIRER FILES

Fed up with “manufactured evidence” linking her to the illegal drug trade, Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday threatened to get back at public officials who would allow themselves to be used against her.

De Lima issued the warning as she branded as another “fabrication” reports that two of her former employees at the Department of Justice had executed affidavits claiming that she ordered them to deposit millions of pesos in a bank account.

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The senator said she received information last Tuesday that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre had allegedly talked to the two employees and made them admit that they had millions of pesos in banks.

“Parang pinapaamin sa kanila na meron daw silang accounts na may deposit of certain millions. Parang pinapaamin din sa kanila na ako ang nagpabukas nu’n para doon daw ipadaan yung mga nanggagaling sa drug lords, drug convicts. Jesus Christ!” she exclaimed. (It appears they were being made to admit having millions of pesos deposited in accounts and that I ordered them to open the accounts as conduits for money from drug lords and drug convicts.)

“Ang alam ko they did not succeed in having those two employees execute anything of that sort so bakit pinapalabas ngayon sa dyaryo na meron ng ganung affidavits?” De Lima said.

She added, “You better ask NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) kung totoo ‘yan. I don’t think totoo yan. I think kasama na naman yan sa psy-war nila, kasama sa pinaggagagawa sa akin.”

READ: Emotional De Lima calls Duterte tirades ‘character assassination’

De Lima said any purported bank accounts would be an “entire fabrication,” saying she did not ask anyone to open any accounts for her to make them “conduits” for money from drug lords.

“First, the alleged existence of the accounts, that’s a fabrication. I don’t think those two would have those accounts, instant millionaires nga sila,” she said.

“Number two, certainly that’s not my doing! I did not ask anyone to open an account for me,” said the senator.

She expressed suspicion that the new allegation was being floated because her detractors, who wanted her investigated at the House of Representatives, were already panicking.

“Nagpapanic na sila. They know they have nothing so ngayon binibilisan na nila ang pag-fabricate, pag-manufacture ng mga so-called evidence. Grabe na ito,” she added.

De Lima appealed to Aguirre and NBI Dirctor Dante Gierran not to allow themselves to be used against her, reminding them that it was a crime to manufacture evidence or false testimony.

“Alam ko namang matitino kayong official,” she said, referring to the DOJ Secretary and the NBI Director. “Huwag na kayong maging party to any perjury or to subornation of perjury.”

“Now kung ganyan pa rin ang gagawin nila, then papanagutin ko sila in some future time. It’s useless to be filing at this point. Saan ko ipa-file yan, sa DOJ?” the senator said./rga

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