Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
A known ally of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said it only serves Senator Leila De Lima right who is now being investigated for her alleged links to the illegal Bilibid drug trade.
“Ang message ko lang kay Leila – karma ‘yang nangyayari sa’yo (My message to Leila is – karma is what’s happening to you),” minority floor leader Quezon Rep. Danny Suarez said in a press briefing.
Inmates alleged that De Lima coddled carnapping convict Jaybee Sebastian who raised millions of campaign funds for the senator from the Bilibid drug trade. A National Bureau of Investigation official said he delivered P10 million to the residence of De Lima in the presence of the senator’s alleged lover and bagman Ronnie Dayan.
READ: NBI exec claims he gave P10M ‘drug quota’ to De Lima | 1st witness testifies De Lima got millions from drug lord
Suarez was a loyal lieutenant of then President Arroyo during the 13th and 14th Congress when he was then a member of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD. He is now a member of the United Nationalist Alliance.
Suarez said De Lima’s karma stemmed from her leading the investigation as justice secretary against Arroyo over anomalies during her administration, such as a charity funds mess, electoral fraud, and the National Broadband Network-ZTE deal.
All these cases De Lima helped build when she was justice secretary of erstwhile President Benigno Aquino III were dismissed, Suarez said.
“Tingnan mo lang yung ginawa kay ma’am (Arroyo) noong araw. Ngayon, napatunayan ng korte na walang kasalanan si ma’am. Ilang taon na nakakulong si GMA; ‘yung issue ng ZTE fraud, lahat na-dismiss, baseless lahat. Saka yung sa sweepstakes, wala ring kaso. Hindi naman siya nakialam sa pera,” Suarez said.
(Look at what you did to Ma’am Arroyo back then. Now, the court has proven that she’s not guilty. Arroyo was detained for years; the issue of the ZTE fraud, everything was dismissed, it was baseless. Even the sweepstakes, there was no case. She didn’t meddle with the money.)
Asked why wish De Lima ill luck when it was Arroyo herself who said no one deserved to be politically persecuted, Suarez maintained that what De Lima did against Arroyo was wrong and that she deserved it for abusing her position in the Department of Justice.
READ: Arroyo: ‘I must be last victim’ of political persecution
“My wisdom is ‘yung ginawa mong kamalian noong araw, baka nakakarma ka ngayon. Mali yung ginawa niya noong araw eh (My wisdom is that the wrongs you did back then, you’ll get karma for it. What she did was wrong). She’s taking advantage of her position, and she even gave, quote and quote, ‘Give me 24-hours in jail, I’ll put her in jail,'” Suarez said.
“It will catch up on you, ultimately,” he added.
Before Arroyo was arrested, De Lima in 2011 was at the helm of preventing Arroyo from fleeing when she included Arroyo in the Department of Justice (DOJ) watch list order, preventing the Pampanga representative from seeking treatment abroad while the justice department was investigating her.
READ: Government stops Arroyo flight
Arroyo was later ordered arrested when a joint Department of Justice and Commission on Elections in Nov. 2011 filed electoral fraud charges against Arroyo before the Pasay city Regional Trial Court. The arrest warrant was issued five hours after the charges were filed. She was granted bail after eight months in hospital detention.
READ: TIMELINE: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s arrest | Thank God, says Arroyo now out on bail
But she was again brought back to detention after Ombudsman prosecutors in 2012 filed a plunder charge against her for the alleged raid of P366 million in state lottery funds at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The Sandiganbayan ordered Arroyo detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center for five years pending her trial until the Supreme Court junked her plunder case in July 2016 for insufficiency of evidence.
READ: SC junks remaining Arroyo plunder case, sets her free | Arroyo walks free after 4 yrs of hospital detention
The Sandiganbayan this year also dismissed the graft and breach of conduct cases against Arroyo after it approved her demurrer to evidence in connection with the anomalous National Broadband Network-ZTE deal.
READ: Sandigan dismisses Arroyo’s NBN-ZTE case
Since returning to Congress to serve her last term as Pampanga congresswoman, Arroyo was elected deputy speaker. JE
READ: Arroyo now a deputy speaker