Umali asks De Lima to respect drug probe despite ‘Bedan’ ties

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali (L) and Senator Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, who led the House of Representatives’ inquiry into the Bilibid drug trade, said he expected Senator Leila de Lima to respect his decision to support the investigation that resulted in her arrest.

This even though De Lima is Umali’s sister in the Lambda Rho Sigma sorority. Umali is a member of the Lambda Rho Beta fraternity.

“I look at it as a case of mutual respect. I respect her in the same way I expect her to respect me,” Umali said during the “Ugnayan sa Batasan” forum at the House of Representatives.

Umali said despite their fraternal ties, he and De Lima have not talked about the House inquiry that investigated the alleged role of De Lima in raising senatorial campaign funds from the drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison.

READ: House justice body: Bilibid drugs flourished under De Lima’s watch 

“We have not talked. From the time I was assigned the inquiry, or when I conducted the hearing, we never talked about this,” Umali said.

Umali said early on he had talked to De Lima about joining politics, and even urged her to consider supporting President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration despite De Lima’s history of investigating Duterte’s alleged links to a death squad.

When she was Commission on Human Rights chief, De Lima investigated the extrajudicial killings in Davao City carried out by the Davao Death Squad.

Former members of the squad have  tagged Duterte as the one who ordered them to summarily kill criminals and his political foes.

READ: Davao cop says Duterte ordered killings, DDS real 

De Lima, Umali and Duterte are all alumni of the San Beda College of Law.

“I told her, perhaps we should look more at a legacy from a valiant president, because we all came from San Beda,” Umali said.

Umali lamented how the House inquiry that dabbled into De Lima’s affair with her alleged bagman and former driver Ronnie Dayan ended up becoming a “Bedan show.”

READ: Digong vs Leila: A battle over death

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who brought high-profile inmates to the inquiry to pin down De Lima, is also a Bedan.

“I felt like this is not what we were taught in San Beda,” Umali said.

READ: House panel chair says Bilibid probe not about De Lima

Umali was a partymate of De Lima in the Liberal Party during the previous 16th Congress before he jumped to President Rodrigo Duterte’s party Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan in the 17th Congress.

Umali is also the brother of then Liberal Party treasurer Alfonso Umali.

Although the House inquiry was used in the case buildup by the Department of Justice against De Lima, De Lima’s arrest was her own doing and that the lower house only acted on its mandate to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation, Umali said.

“In short, she is in jail for her alleged involvement in alleged drug activities. We did not go to the details of the evidence of the case, which was done by the Department of Justice,” Umali said.

Umali lamented De Lima’s moves to question the jurisdiction and integrity of the court that issued the warrant and her claim that she is the first political prisoner of the administration.

“It’s unfortunate that instead of facing drug charges, Senator De Lima resorts to the familiar tactics of impugning the credibility of the Regional Trial Court, and politicizing the issue in same manner she impugned and cast doubt on the committee on justice when we were conducting our inquiry,” Umali said. JE/rga

READ: De Lima: I won’t be silenced