Sen. Leila de Lima (INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON)
MANILA — Senator Leila de Lima said on Thursday night she would not dignify the “web of lies” that was peddled in the House committee hearing to pin her down for the alleged drug trafficking in the New Bilibid Prisons.
She said she would face her detractors in due time and in the right venue and added no woman deserved to be treated the way she was treated in the House of Representatives.
Below is her verbatim statement about the testimony of Ronnie Dayan, her former lover, bodyguard and driver and her alleged bagman for drug pay-offs:
“I did not watch the entirety of my public hanging. It’s a spectacle that diverts us from more important national issues, and I don’t believe I am one. But soon, I will face my detractors.
“The glaring inconsistencies of statements from all “witnesses” in the House inquiry to this Bilibid Prison drug trade conspiracy speak for itself.
“I refuse to indulge my accusers by addressing their web of lies and desperate attempts to implicate me as a corrupt public servant.
“As a woman, it breaks my heart that my private life and personal relationship have become subject of the public and Congress’ ridicule.
“No woman, whoever or whatever she may be, whether a sitting senator or a humble secretary, deserves to be betrayed, to be treated with so much disrespect and without dignity, before the public eye, by any man she is with or had a relationship with.
“It is a shame that those I trusted fell into the trap of power, deceit, fear and intimidation that they found it necessary to lie and twist truths to save themselves.” SFM