Leila asks SC: Stop Duterte’s ‘abuse of power’

Senator Leila De Lima INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima has warned that critics of the government risked landing in jail as well if the Supreme Court failed to halt President Duterte’s “abuse of power,” saying her incarceration on drug charges was only “meant to satisfy” his “lust for vengeance.”

In a 64-page memorandum filed by her lawyers, a defiant De Lima told the high court that her indictment and arrest were an offshoot of her unrelenting criticism of Mr. Duterte’s take-no-prisoners approach in curbing criminality ever since he was a mayor of Davao City.

“To file charges that are manifestly false before a court that is manifestly without jurisdiction, (was) simply to satisfy the lust for vengeance. That is why (the) petitioner has come to this court with such haste,” read De Lima’s petition, which was filed on Monday.

“For it is only this court that is capable of stopping such abuse of power. If they are capable of doing this to a senator, they are capable of doing this to anyone—unless the honorable court acts, and acts now,” it added. “As in this case, the liberty of citizens will be endangered by state officers more interested in incarcerating targeted enemies than in promoting the rule of law.”

The senator filed the memorandum in a bid to convince the 15-member tribunal to grant her petition for certiorari and to set her free from the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, where she has been held since Feb. 24.

She had also petitioned the magistrates to void the arrest warrant issued against her by Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204 for lack for jurisdiction.

De Lima accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Solicitor General of violating the law and several court procedures to put her in jail.

Pattern of persecution

“This case reveals a clear pattern of persecution, not prosecution,” she said. “The public pronouncements of the top government officials against the petitioner … are badges of persecution that calls on the Supreme Court to perform its duty to temper the awesome powers of the government against patent violations of human rights.”

She said she had been deprived of her right to be presumed innocent because no less than the President himself already prejudged her.

From August to November 2016, De Lima said the Chief Executive had spoken in at least 22 public gatherings threatening to “destroy her in public” by accusing her of involvement in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison during her term as justice secretary.

She said the President’s tirades against her were followed by the House inquiry into the proliferation of the narcotics trade in the state penitentiary and the subsequent filing of charges against her by the DOJ panel of prosecutors.

Interestingly, the DOJ panel of prosecutors which handled the complaint against her was headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, a fraternity brother of both Mr. Duterte and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

De Lima, the President’s fiercest political arch-nemesis, insisted that she was not seeking special treatment from the high court and that she did not violate the principle on the hierarchy of courts as alleged by Solicitor General Jose Calida.

She told the court: “The instant petition is a matter of national interest and has serious implications, given the questions involved, which were triggered by the remarkably unusual positions taken by the legal departments of the government.”