“Stop turning a blind eye,” detained Senator Leila de Lima urged her colleagues in the Senate as well as supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The supporters of President Duterte, including Senator Koko Pimentel, should stop avoiding the issue about my continued unjust detention by invoking legalisms and technicalities in relation to the recommendation of the IPU,” De Lima said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The IPU is merely appealing to the sense of fairness and justice of the court to get an unbiased view of the trumped-up cases of illegal drug trade filed against me,” she added.
De Lima, who has been detained at Camp Crame in Quezon City over drug charges, was referring to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which earlier adopted a resolution calling for her immediate release from detention.
READ: Int’l group to PH gov’t: Free De Lima
It also expressed regret over the Senate’s failure to “take a firm stance” in favor of the detained senator.
As she thanked the IPU for fighting for her right and calling for her immediate release, De Lima also expressed hope that the organization’s advice could serve as a “wake-up call” for her Senate colleagues and Duterte’s supporters “to stop turning a blind eye” on the “injustices” that she said she is experiencing under the hands of the President.
In particular, De Lima said she hopes Pimentel would start speaking “in behalf of the Senate and his colleagues and not in behalf of Duterte.”
Her remark was in response to the Senate leader’s earlier statement that the IPU does not understand the Philippine Constitution when it called on the chamber to “act in solidarity” and make a “firm stance” in her favor.
READ: Pimentel hits int’l legislators group: You don’t understand our Constitution
“If they insist that we observe their rules, then they are insulting us and not respecting our sovereignty to determine our own rules. Our basic rules can be found in our Constitution,” Pimentel said when earlier sought for comment on IPU’s resolution. /kga