Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre (right) and Sen. Leila de Lima (left). INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
There were no fireworks when Senator Leila de Lima and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II faced each other on Friday at a budget hearing in the Senate.
Aguirre and other officials of the Department of Justice (DOJ) appeared before the Senate committee on finance chaired by Senator Loren Legarda to defend the proposed budget of the agency for 2017.
At the start of the hearing, De Lima promised that she would be “very civil,” “very professional and statesman” and would not say or anything that would further “fuel” the issue between her and the Justice Secretary.
The two have traded accusations over the senator’s alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade when she was Justice Secretary during the past administration.
De Lima and Aguirre first exchanged pleasantries before the senator started asking him questions.
The senator also promised to be “very civil,” “very professional and statesman,” saying that she loves the DOJ that she headed during the past administration.
“I’m really very happy to see everyone here, old faces and new faces. You were my former family so I assure you of my constant support for the DOJ as an institution,” De Lima said.
“So I’m exercising the better part my judgement that I would not do or say anything here that will further fuel what’s happening today. I have psyched myself today and to forget momentarily about the pain that I’m experiencing right now, seeing my former institution being used as a weapon in the continued vilification against me,” she said.
“But as I’ve said, I’m going to be very civil today, very professional, statesman because I love DOJ,” the senator added.
It was Aguirre, who presented several witnesses in the ongoing House of Representatives’ investigation on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison when De Lima was still the Justice Secretary.
The senator has repeatedly denied the allegations that at one point, she even compared the evidence against her to Aguirre’s wig.
“Secretary Aguirre’s alleged evidence against me is like his toupee, his wig—fake and cosmetics only. There is nothing into it other than that. Nothing’s authentic,” de Lima said. RAM/rga