De Lima insists Duterte ordered Bilibid riot

Senator Leila de Lima and President Rodrigo Duterte. FILE PHOTOS

Senator Leila de Lima said that she has “credible sources” to prove her accusation that it was President Rodrigo Duterte who ordered the riot at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) that killed a high-profile inmate and wounded three others, including Jaybee Sebastian.

De Lima did not name her sources.

“Ang Pangulo mismo ang nag-utos niyan (the President himself ordered that), and (it was) implemented by his enforcers,” De Lima said in a statement on Friday.

“I have my own sources, very credible ones, about who’s behind that stabbing incident which victimized 4 of the ‘Bilibid 19’, including Jaybee Sebastian, and why they did that,” she said.

READ: De Lima: Duterte, ‘cohorts’ ordered stabbing of Sebastian, et al

Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said Thursday that De Lima’s insinuation had no basis and stressed that the senator could not even produce a single witness or evidence to support her insinuation.

Aguirre also believes that De Lima’s allegation could be a diversionary tactic since she was the one being implicated in the stabbing of Sebastian by the attacker himself, inmate Tomas Doniña.

READ: Aguirre asks De Lima: Why so fixated on my hair?

De Lima denied this, saying that it was Aguirre and Duterte’s way of coercing Sebastian and others to testify  against her, which they eventually did after the incident.

BACKSTORY: Sebastian stabbed to stop testimony vs De Lima — inmate

In November, Sebastian filed charges of graft, bribery, ethical breaches and violations of the Anti-Torture Act against the senator, and appeared before the Lower House to testify that he had given a total of P14 million to De Lima’s campaign.

READ: Jaybee Sebastian files graft, criminal raps vs De Lima

“They have the capacity and resources to do anything and everything, including downright criminal acts, in order to implement and consummate a presidential vendetta to destroy me at all costs,” De Lima said. IDL/rga