Panelo: De Lima is forgetting she’s a human rights violator too

MANILA, Philippines — Detained Senator Leila De Lima has apparently forgotten that she is also an alleged human rights violator that should have been included in the list of personalities she wants to get banned in the United States, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

“You must remember na ‘yung (that the) amendment refers to violators of human rights, di umano (allegedly). Eh allegedly she’s one of those victims but she is forgetting that she is also a violator of human rights kaya nga siya nakademanda eh (that’s why there are charges against her),” Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

“Kung hindi niya nilagay ‘yung pangalan niya dun na number one, eh mali ‘yung listahan niya. Kasama siya dun dapat,” he added.

(if she’s not included in her own list, then that list is incorrect. She should be included.)

De Lima reportedly sent the list through the U.S. Embassy. She however, refuses to disclose the names on the list and how many persons are on the list.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed into law a U.S. spending bill which includes a provision banning the entry of Philippine officials supposedly behind De Lima’s “wrongful” detention.

The amendment to the measure was introduced by Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy and was likewise supported by Senator Edward Mackey.

The prohibition is in line with the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the U.S. government to punish foreign officials implicated in “significant corruption or gross violations of human rights” in any part of the world.

Malacañang has repeatedly claimed that De Lima was accorded proper legal process and her remarks against President Rodrigo Duterte has nothing to do with the drug-related charges she is now facing.

De Lima, a staunch Duterte critic, has been detained since 2017 at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center inside Camp Crame for her supposed involvement in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prisons when she was serving as Justice Secretary.

The senator has denied the charges, saying they were fabricated in retaliation for her fierce criticism of Duterte’s brutal war on drugs and for the monitoring of his human rights record since the time she headed the Commission on Human Rights in 2008.

Edited by MUF