Senator Leila de Lima. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Fed up with incessant attempts to link her to the illegal drug trade, Senator Leila de Lima dared her accusers on Tuesday to just offer all drug lords immunity in exchange for their testimony against her.
De Lima issued this challenge after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II’s statement that his office is considering alleged big-time drug lord Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr. as a possible witness against her.
READ: DOJ eyes Kerwin Espinosa as possible witness against De Lima
The senator reiterated that he did not know Espinosa despite a photo showing them together with another woman.
READ: De Lima: I don’t know Espinosas
“Ako na naman ang tinuturo nila, yang Kerwin Espinosa na yan na hindi ko naman talaga kilala despite of that so-called photograph na hindi ko naman talaga matandaan kung na-meet ko sya noon. Hindi ko sya kilala. So sigurado, may kapalit na naman yan, immunity na naman yan,” De Lima told reporters.
(They are pointing to me again I really don’t that Kerwin Espinosa despite of that so-called photograph and I couldn’t remember if I really met him before. I don’t know him. So for sure, he would also be given immunity.)
“Alam mo, siguro kung ako sa kanila, mag-issue na lang siya ng parang (If I were them, [Aguirre] could just issue a) public announcement: ‘To all drug lords, in exchange for your immunity, please testify, execute a sworn statement pointing to De Lima as the queen of the drug trade.’ Ganun na lang siguro, para immune na sila lahat. Ako na lang (Perhaps it could be that way so all of the drug lords would be immune. I would be the only one left without immunity),” she said.
The senator lamented that the allegations against her were “laughable.”
While she admitted that she had been at Burnham Park in Baguio City once or twice during the campaign period, De Lima insisted that she could not remember meeting the alleged drug lord.
“Lalo nang hindi ko maalala na nagpakilala sya as Kerwin Espinosa (I couldn’t remember him introducing himself as Kerwin Espinosa),” she said.
She said she also asked her campaign team to check if he had been to Espinosa’s town in Albuera, Leyte but she was told that they had never been to Albuera.
“Ma’am, never tayong pumunta sa Albuera. Never kayong nakipag meeting o never kayong tumanggap ng suporta (Ma’am, we had never been to Albuera. You never had a meeting or received support) from the Espinosas. Never,” the senator said, quoting her people as telling her. RAM/rga
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