De Lima blasts Duterte ‘vendetta,’ braces for arrest

Sen. Leila M. de Lima. JOSEPH VIDAL

In what could be her final weekend of freedom, Sen. Leila de Lima made the best of her time in liberty.

Facing arrest over what she decried as false and railroaded drug charges, the embattled lawmaker spent the weekend with friends and family as she braced herself for possible arrest next week.

“I’m spending my weekend as quietly as I can,” De Lima told the Inquirer in a text message.

“My legal team is preparing to file appropriate pleadings to try to preempt or prevent the issuance of an arrest warrant,” she said. “In any case, I’ve been preparing myself psychologically for the worst scenario. I have started packing my things.”

The feisty 57-year-old former human rights commission chief said she would not go down without a fight. She had repeatedly denied the drug charges, saying President Duterte was taking revenge at her for investigating his alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings in Davao City when he was mayor.

Mr. Duterte had lashed at De Lima with foul language, calling the senator a sex-crazed immoral woman whose election opened “the portals of the national government … to narcopolitics.”

But she remained defiant. “For as long as I can, I will continue to fight. They cannot silence me,” De Lima said on Twitter.

The former justice secretary had expected that the Department of Justice (DOJ), currently headed by one of her chief accusers, Vitaliano Aguirre II, would file nonbailable drug charges against her.

“This is not the product of politics, this is the product of drug trading,” Aguirre had said in defending the charges against the senator.

De Lima had asserted that complaints against public officials like her should be referred to the Ombudsman, who would then file a case at the Sandiganbayan if they found probable cause.

On Friday, a five-member DOJ panel filed three cases against her before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC). It dismissed one complaint and referred an antigraft complaint to the Ombudsman. On Monday, the court is expected to assign a judge, who would decide whether to order De Lima’s arrest.

Early on Saturday, De Lima joined nuns at the Quirino Grandstand in the “Walk for Life,” a prayer rally attended by tens of thousands who opposed plans to pass the death penalty bill by the President’s congressional allies. She is fiercely against the restoration of capital punishment, saying it was the worst form of criminal penalty.

“I’m here with the people because of our shared thoughts and opinion, and shared views, and shared convictions,” she said in a brief interview.

She said the drug cases were only meant to silence her, being among the most vocal critics of Mr. Duterte’s controversial policies, particularly his war on drugs that has killed more than 7,000 since July last year.

“No other reason (but to silence me), and also personal vendetta of the President … because I’m innocent and not at all involved in the drug trade. So these are all trumped-up charges,” she said.

Fellow Liberal Party senators rallied behind her, saying the charges against her were “an underhanded maneuver” against administration critics.

In a statement on Saturday, Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon and Senators Francis Pangilinan and Bam Aquino said filing the cases in a regular court was a clear case of railroading.

They supported De Lima’s assertion that the complaints should have been referred to the Ombudsman.

“The Liberal Party condemns the patently illegal filing of criminal cases against Sen. Leila de Lima before the Regional Trial Court,” the statement said.

Bringing the cases to the RTC was “clearly an attempt to undermine our court processes,” it said.

“This purely political vendetta has no place in a justice system that upholds the rule of law. This is condemnable,” it said, adding that any warrant of arrest “based on trumped-up charges is illegal.”

De Lima’s sorority sisters, fraternity brothers and other supporters also visited her on Saturday at her home in Parañaque City.

She plans to hear Mass at the Our Lady of Manaoag Church in Pangasinan today.

“I go there at least once a month, sometimes twice a month. I always feel the need to go there whenever in the middle of a crisis/controversy,” she said. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP