Robredo calls De Lima’s arrest ‘political harassment’
Vice President Leni Robredo on Friday called Senator Leila De Lima’s arrest a form of “political harassment.”
“The arrest of Senator Leila de Lima is the latest move in a persistent campaign of political harassment being waged against a duly elected member of Congress,” Robredo said in a statement.
“These efforts to smear Senator de Lima are a strong indication that the charges against her arise from a political agenda and are not the result of an independent, unbiased legal process,” she added.
Robredo said that these efforts began soon after De Lima started an investigation on the extrajudicial killings during the current administration and its campaign against illegal drugs.
De Lima on Friday morning turned herself in to agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) after the Muntinlupa Regional trial Court issued an arrest warrant against the senator.
“With contradicting testimonies from criminals as basis of the case, they circumvented due process to fast track the issuance of the arrest warrant,” Robredo said.
The vice president cited that the country’s history as a nation is flawed by occurrences “where government officials use the processes of criminal justice to cow, silence, and eliminate critics.”
She urged Filipinos to not just stand by and let something like De Lima’s arrest happen again, and fight for the right to oppose, which she described as the “foundation of our strength as a free and democratic nation.”
“We must make sure that our government institutions remain uncorrupted and independent of each other, particularly when it comes to checks and balances in pursuit of accountability,” Robredo said.
“We exhort the people to follow and scrutinize this case religiously,” she added. CDG/rga
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