Senator Leila De Lima gestures to the media during a presconference at the Senate where she called President Rodrigo Duterte a “sociapath”. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Detained Sen. Leila de Lima on Sunday questioned her Senate colleagues’ sense of right and wrong as the Senate public order committee concluded its hearing on the claims of confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) hit man Arturo Lascañas after just one hearing and without exacting responsibility.
In a handwritten letter from her detention cell, De Lima said the fact that President Rodrigo Duterte, whom she called a “murderous psychopath,” won an overwhelming mandate in the elections should not prevent the Senate and other independent institutions from investigating allegations against him.
READ: De Lima finds solace in written word
“I don’t know with some of my colleagues in the Senate but it’s not okay with me that we have a murderous psychopath occupying the highest post in the land. Where is their fundamental sense of right and wrong?” De Lima wrote.
“The fact that this President won handily, with the election results unquestioned is no bar to accountability. Now, more than ever, our conscience as a people must reign supreme. GISING PILIPINAS!” she added.
De Lima, in a separate letter, earlier called out some of her colleagues for supposedly twisting the truth by casting doubt on Lascañas’ credibility. In a major turnaround from his previous testimony, the retired Davao policeman returned to the Senate last week and affirmed the existence of the notorious DDS, implicating then Davao Mayor Duterte in summary executions of criminals and enemies in the city.
READ: De Lima on death squad probe: ‘Davao under spell of ruthless king’
“Our world has been turned upside down. Those who lie outright and give glaring inconsistencies in their statements are the ones being believed and rewarded. But the credibility of those who are telling the truth like Matobato and Lascañas is being questioned by some senators,” she said.
“It is tragic that our society’s norms of what is right and wrong have been shattered in favor of lies and deception,” De Lima added.
De Lima, one of the most vocal critics of the Duterte administration, is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame for her alleged involvement in drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison, which she dismissed as politically motivated and a personal vendetta./rga
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