Sen. Leila de Lima—MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“Unprecedented” and “condemnable” were how detained Senator Leila de Lima described on Friday President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirades against the media.
“The President’s incessant attacks versus the media (are) indeed unprecedented. It is condemnable,” De Lima said in a handwritten statement from her detention at Camp Crame.
“It’s turning out that his beef with two major media outfits springs from previous experiences with them and/or unflattering reportage from them.”
“This is but another manifestation of the vindictiveness of this President. Everything to him is personal. And we just have to live with it???” asked the senator, a staunch critic of Duterte.
In recent speeches and interviews, the President had been attacking the media, particularly ABS-CBN and the Philippine Daily Inquirer for their alleged “slanted” and garbage reports.
“That is the truth, Inquirer: You are b*ll***t, and also ABS-CBN,” Duterte said in a speech last week.
“You put out garbage. Somebody should tell you now, you sons of b****es, you engaged in too much foolishness. Somebody should say: ‘You son of a b***h.” They might be afraid to say it. I will attack, even every day,” he said. JE/rga
READ: Inquirer reacts to Duterte’s accusation of ‘slanted’ reports