Senator Leila de Lima.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
Embattled Sen. Leila de Lima said Saturday that there was a “more sinister reason” why President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa for the reinstatement of Supt. Marvin Marcos.
Duterte admitted on Friday that he was the one who asked dela Rosa to reinstate Marcos, the police official allegedly involved in the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.
READ: It was I who called De la Rosa, Duterte admits
The President said he was only doing an investigative job on Marcos.
READ: Duterte defends order to Bato not to remove Supt. Marcos
“But I don’t believe for a single moment Duterte’s cited reason for the reinstatement, that the President himself was hatching a cloak and dagger scheme to further entrap Marcos or his partners in the illegal drug trade,” De lima said in a statement.
“We have had enough of these runaround explanations from Malacañang, and I’m sure there’s a deeper and, possibly, a more sinister reason for the President’s actions,” she added.
The senator questioned why dela Rosa had to point to a “kumpadre” (friend) instead of just admitting from the start that the President himself ordered the reinstatement.
She said the “President had no choice but to own it up instead of letting Bong Go, his closest aide, trusted confidant, and all around go-to guy, to be the fall guy in this incident.”
Duterte’s admission, she added, “brought more questions than answers.”
“This incident in itself should be the subject of a Senate inquiry. After the Peter Lim episode, where a supposed drug lord kumpadre of the President is allowed to leave the country, we must start asking ourselves this question: whether or not the President, rather than De Lima, is actually the number one drug lord protector and coddler in the country,” she said.
“Let us once again start asking questions, for the truth to come out, and to put an end to Malacañang’s factory of lies and Orwellian doublespeak,” she added.
De Lima has been the subject of Congressional hearings after high-profile inmates at the New Bilibid Prison accused her of receiving drug money from drug lords inside the national penitentiary. Self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa also tagged de Lima to be under his payola.
The senator has repeatedly denied these allegations. IDL