De Lima: Duterte jail visit mere ‘publicity stunt’

With the country marking Prison Awareness Week, President Duterte’s toughest critic called on him and his allies in Congress to seriously address the deteriorating condition in crowded jails nationwide.

In a statement issued on Tuesday from Camp Crame, where she has been detained since February on drug trafficking charges, Sen. Leila De Lima said the government should look at the pitiful prison system as an “equally pressing issue.”

She described the President’s visit last week to inmates at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig as a “publicity stunt” meant to earn “brownie points.” Mr. Duterte then promised to provide the detainees with TV sets.

“If Mr. Duterte is really serious in addressing the issues of our prison system, he should at the very least take note of and call on Sen. [Richard] Gordon to finally act on the resolutions I filed and accordingly conduct investigations,” she said.

Gordon chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights.

“I’ve been appealing to Sen. Gordon to act on these resolutions but unfortunately, no hearing has been done on the matter. The right of every Filipino should be respected, even if he is locked up in prison,” De Lima said. —Jocelyn R. Uy