De Lima urges public vigilance with Duterte declaration

Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — While deferring to the President’s judgment on placing the entire country under a state of lawlessness, Sen. Leila de Lima on Sunday called for public vigilance to protect civil rights with the military  authorized to undertake law enforcement operations.

In a statement, De Lima, among President Rodrigo Duterte’s most vocal critics, said the public should be wary of any abuse while the military is under expanded authority in the wake of the blast in Davao City Friday night, which claimed 14 lives.

READ: Duterte declares ‘state of lawlessness’

“While it is for the President to decide what powers are needed to respond to the current situation, it is also for the people to be vigilant that the government response to the crisis does not result in the restriction of their civil liberties and political rights,” De Lima said.

“While it is the role of the government to protect the people, it is the right of the people to make sure and remind the government of the limits of its power and call out any abuse that may result from the enhanced security measures put in place by the government,” she said.

De Lima also condemned the attack, expressing her “personal grief and sadness” for the incident.

“I strongly condemn the bombing at the Davao City night market. This is clearly the act of terrorists, individuals without conscience. Violence is the only language that they know, especially the kind that victimizes innocent civilians and non-combatants,” she said.

The senator, recently the subject of Duterte’s  speeches alleging her links to the drug trade, also urged government to be “clear on who the enemies of the state are” and to “calibrate its response accordingly.”

She said it was “inappropriate” to “lump together all groups that are perceived by the government as threats to national security as being responsible for the bombing.”

She noted that Philippine National Police Chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, the President’s chief implementor of the fierce war on illegal drugs, had raised the possibility that the attack could have an act of “narco-terrorism” without validation.

She also slammed the statement of “a well-known idealogue of the Duterte administration” which pointed to the possible involvement of the political opposition in the attack.

De Lima did not make a specific reference in her statement, but the President’s former spokesperson Peter Laviña, had explicitly tagged the opposition in the attack in a widely-shared Facebook post.

“This is not the time to use a terrorist attack of a rebel extremist group to loosely and recklessly paint a picture of a conspiracy against the state among drug lords, the terrorists, and the legitimate political opposition,” De Lima said./rga

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