De Lima: Duterte admin siding with ‘high-profile’ crooks

Sen. Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Senator Leila de Lima on Wednesday accused the Duterte administration of being “bent on taking the side of every high-profile crook and scoundrel the past administration was able to jail.”

Her statement came after Solicitor General Jose Calida sought for a reversal of Janet Lim-Napoles’ conviction for serious illegal detention.

Calida was quoted as saying that “injustice was done to Janet Lim-Napoles.”

READ: SolGen Calida: Injustice done to Napoles

De Lima said she “cannot imagine what justification the OSG (Office of the Solicitor General) has come up with this time in order to sabotage the criminal conviction the DOJ (Department of Justice) has successfully secured in the past administration.”

“The professional career lawyers of the OSG must be cringing at this latest stunt of their Solicitor General,” the former Justice Secretary said.

De Lima said it is “probably the lowest point ever that the OSG has reached in its years of existence.”

“Release Napoles, the number one enabler of plunderers in government, and we might as well dissolve our justice system and declare this government a government of criminals, where the innocent are imprisoned and the criminals liberated,” she said.

READ: SolGen Calida moves to acquit Napoles in illegal detention of Luy

The senator said the administration might release next the convicted drug lords who testified against her.

“Under these circumstances, it is indeed an honor to be imprisoned under this regime of criminal coddlers,” she said.

De Lima is among the most vocal critics of the Duterte administration, which accused her of receiving money from drug lords. RAM