Presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo. VINCE F. NONATO/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Sen. Leila de Lima will suffer the same fate as former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo if the drug charges against her will be proven true, President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief legal counsel said.
“O e di ‘pag napatunayan na kasama siya sa drugs, e ‘di kulong siya. Matitikman na niya ang pinatikim niya kay Arroyo,” lawyer Salvador Panelo told reporters in an interview in Malacañang on Friday.
(Once it is proven she has drug ties, she will be jailed. She will taste what she made Arroyo experience.)
READ: Duterte: De Lima could suffer ‘what Gloria Arroyo suffered’
Arroyo was detained for five years for alleged misuse of P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) intelligence funds. She, however, was released in July 2016 after the Supreme Court voted to acquit her in the remaining plunder case.
In 2011, Arroyo, who was facing initial investigation on alleged electoral fraud, was barred by then Justice secretary de Lima from leaving the country to seek treatment despite a temporary restraining order from the high tribunal.
Panelo said De Lima should welcome the charges against her because “she would have the opportunity to defend herself.”
“She should welcome that,” he said.
On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court three drug-related charges against De Lima.
READ: DOJ files drug raps against De Lima
De Lima dismissed the charges as mere “travesty of truth and justice.” She said it was a “plain and simple political persecution.” IDL/rga