Senator Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Sen. Leila de Lima on Monday maintained that she will not appear in the congressional probe into the proliferation of illegal drugs at the national penitentiary, which she called a “sham inquiry” supposedly ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte to destroy her image.
In an interview over radio dzMM, De Lima also denied accusations that she allegedly received millions of drug payoffs from high-profile inmates at the New Bilibid Prison, which Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II claimed were personally received by De Lima in her house.
READ: ‘So evil,’ De Lima says of reports linking her to drugs
“Anumang testigo o ebidensya ang ilalabas nila ay walang katotohanan (Any witness or evidence they will present against me is not true),” De Lima said. “Lahat ay galit sa akin ang mga ‘yan dahil sa pag-raid ko noon sa kanila kaya walang katotohanan ‘yan (They all hold grudges against me because of the raids I conducted before so their allegations are not true).”
“Hindi ako coddler ng drug lords at lalong wala akong tinatanggap sa sinuman… Paiba-iba ang kwento nila. Sila mismo nahuhuli sa pinaggagagawa nila na iniiba nila ang storya (I’m not a coddler of drugs lords and I didn’t receive anything from anyone…They have different versions of stories. They fall into their own nets because of their different versions of stories),” she added.
Aguirre said at least 30 witnesses including high-profile inmates and government officials will testify against De Lima at the House of Representatives, where the inquiry will begin on Tuesday.
Among the witnesses are National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Rafael Ragos and inmates Herbert “Ampang” Colangco and Noel Martinez.
READ: Witnesses vs De Lima given immunity from suit
Aguirre said Ragos will testify how he, on several occasions, supposedly delivered money from Bilibid to De Lima when the latter was still justice secretary.
Aguirre said the witnesses, including the inmates, have been given immunity from suit so their testimonies could not be used against them.
De Lima, who is leading a Senate probe on the spate of suspected extrajudicial killings in the country amid the administration’s relentless war on drugs, is being accused by Duterte of coddling lords during her stint at the Department of Justice. RAM/rga