De Lima describes viral video admitting her drug ties as fake, spliced

Sen. Leila de Lima INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines—Opposition Senator Leila de Lima has warned the public against a “spliced video” of her allegedly admitting her involvement in the illegal drug trade.

The video, which was a spliced version of De Lima’s privilege speech at the Senate about extrajudicial killings on Aug. 2, 2016, was first posted by Pinoy Republic Facebook Page last Aug. 8, 2016 with a caption that partly read: “Umamin na ang De Lima na isa siyang protector ng droga.”

The fake video, according to De Lima, has been gaining traction and popularity again after mostly pro-administration pages and personalities recently shared and reposted it online.

“Pinanood ng mga staff ko yung video na yan. Sabi nila, halatang edited ang video na ginawa. Patuloy itong ipinakakalat ng bayarang trolls para linlangin ang mga Pilipino at siraan ang mga personalidad katulad ko na tutol sa baluktot na polisiya ng gobyerno,” De Lima said in a statement Friday.

The posted video has not yet been taken down by Facebook and has already gained 2.7 million views, 10,000 reactions, and more than 82,000 shares.

De Lima, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, has been detained at the PNP Headquarters since 2017 on drug-related charges which she has vehemently denied.

The modified video implies, among others, that De Lima supposedly admitted to being a protector of Bilibid drug lords even though she mentioned in her original speech that “I was the only Justice Secretary since the 1986 EDSA Revolution who dared to eradicate the dominion of the drug lords inside Bilibid.”

The video also falsely implied that she already relinquished her post as a senator when she actually said otherwise in her speech that she will not surrender her mandate as a Senator.

De Lima, a former justice secretary, reminded the Filipino public, especially social media users, to make it a habit to always verify the legitimacy of reports and clips posted across the Internet before believing them, let alone joining in sharing unverified information online. /jpv

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