Sen. Leila de Lima INQUIRER file photo
Finally, they found a common ground.
Detained Sen. Leila De Lima agreed with the statement of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque that the charges against her were “very serious” but not because of its merits, but because they were “anchored on orchestrated lies.”
“Very serious charges? Yes, the charges that the DOJ (Department of Justice) and its cohorts, upon Duterte’s command, have managed to put together based on perjured or coerced testimonies are ostensibly ‘very serious’ as they are non-bailable,” De Lima said in a statement Wednesday.
“But these are bogus, invented, fabricated or trumped-up charges. Otherwise put, they are anchored on lies, orchestrated lies. A pure fairy tale of my alleged complicity in the illegal drug trade,” she added.
For the second year, “Foreign Policy” magazine included the senator in its Leading Global Thinker list for her “unfettered criticism” of President Rodrigo Duterte and his violent campaign against illegal drugs.
READ: Int’l magazine names De Lima anew as a Leading Global Thinker
When asked about the Palace’s reaction on the recognition, Roque said during a press briefing: “What can I say? That’s the decision of the magazine ‘no. So c’est la vie ‘no.”
“As far as the Philippine authorities are concerned, she stands charged—very serious charges and there is in fact no bail recommended for her provisional liberty. That’s the position of the State,” he added.
De Lima said that the infirmities of the charges against her are a “telling proof” of the fakery of the accusations hurled against her.
“The patent infirmity of the original Information was plainly and intensely articulated by some of the dissenting Justices in the recent 9-6 decision of the Supreme Court on my Petition. According to them, the defects or deficiencies of said Information are such that render my arrest and detention void from the very beginning,” she said.
“No amount of lies, or no matter how many self-confessed drug lords and convicted felons or any other so-called witnesses my persecutors may persuade or threated to lie against me, it will not change the fact that I’m innocent,” she added.
The senator pointed out that the “very fact” that government prosecutors seek to amend the information filed against her from “illegal drug trading” to “conspiracy to commit drug trading” is a “telling proof of the fakery of the charges.”
“Both the DOJ and OSG cannot figure out, as they cannot agree, on what exactly are they accusing me of!”
De Lima maintained her innocence, saying her detention is the “grossest injustice” perpetrated in “full view of the entire world.”
“The world knows that I’m innocent. Hence, as this grossest injustice is being perpetrated in full view of the entire world, to paraphrase Justice Carpio, institutions around the world felt morally compelled to provide any meaningful succor, in solidarity with my causes. That is the very essence of the various recognitions, all priceless, accorded me, the latest being those from the Liberal International (LI) and Foreign Policy (FP) magazine,” she said.
“As Amnesty International’s motto aptly puts it — “when injustice happens to one person, it matters to us all,” she added.
De Lima is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame in Quezon City over drug charges. She was accused of being complicit over and allowing the illegal drug trade at the National Bilibid Prison to flourish under her watch as justice secretary. /jpv