De Lima: Duterte part of plot to arrest, jail me

President Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Senator Leila de Lima on Monday accused President Rodrigo Duterte of being part of an alleged effort to have her arrested and jailed for her supposed involvement in illegal drugs.

De Lima said the plot involved the filing of a case against her in regular courts, instead of the Office of the Ombudsman, which she said has jurisdiction over her since her alleged involvement in illegal drugs happened when she was still Justice Secretary.

“Bakit ho? Kasi yun ho ang utos ng Pangulo na dapat maaresto kaagad ako dahil mas madali ho sigurong makakuha ng arrest warrant sa regular courts (Why? Because that’s the President’s order—to have me arrested immediately because it is easier to get an arrest warant from the regular courts),” she said in a television interview.

“Kasi kung dadaan pa sa Ombudsman, yung Ombudsman na man po would do its own independent fact-finding dyan sa mga alegasyon na yan and will do its own preliminary investigation at hindi nito basta basta ia-adopt ang mga findings ng mga DOJ (Department of Justice) pero sa regular courts posible po na makakuha sila kaagad ng arrest warrant,” the senator added.

(If would undergo the process in the Ombudsman, the office would do its own independent fact-finding [investigation] on the allegations and will do its own preliminary investigation and it won’t merely adopt the findings of the DOJ but in regular courts, it is possible that they would get an arrest warrant immediately.)

De Lima, nevertheless, braced herself for the worst possible scenario, noting how the President was hell-bent on putting her in jail based on his own public pronouncements.

“Katuparan lang po yang ng matagal nang inuutos ng Pangulo. Di ho ba ilang beses na ho na nyang sinasabi na (It’s only the fulfillment of the long overdue order of the President. Isn’t it that he has long been saying that) he wants me locked up in jail to suffer the fate of the former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?” De Lima said in a separate interview at the Senate.

“Matagal na ho akong pina project ng mga yan (They have long been projecting me)…” she said.

De Lima earlier accused Arroyo’s camp and the “pork” senators of allegedly behind an effort to link her to illegal drugs.

READ: De Lima tags Gloria Arroyo camp in ‘smear’ job

It was also during her stint as Justice Secretary when she stopped Arroyo from leaving the Philippines in 2011 to seek medical treatment in Singapore while facing corruption allegations. RAM/rga