Take days off to reduce stress, Duterte tells De Lima

PRESIDENT Duterte on Wednesday advised Sen. Leila de Lima to “take some days off,” as she might be close to a nervous breakdown.

“In all sincerity as a human being. I think honestly, I’m not trying to derogate her. She’s a lawyer, she’s bright, but I think she’s breaking down,” Mr. Duterte said in a talk with reporters before his departure for Vietnam.

He suggested that De Lima take the time off to cut some stress. “I’m afraid that if she continues yakking there and listening to … she will have a nervous breakdown,” he added.

De Lima called a news conference on Wednesday to denounce the tactics the government was using to link her to the illegal drug trade in New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

She said the reported riot at the prison on Wednesday morning, in which convicted murderer Jaybee Sebastian was stabbed, could be the government’s tactic in trying to scare inmates into testifying against her. Sebastian had refused to join other inmates in linking her to illegal drugs.

For Mr. Duterte, the biggest sin of De Lima was winning a seat in the Senate using drug money allegedly collected from convicted drug lords operating from the national penitentiary.

“I think the most serious charge against her is that the portals of the national government has been opened by her election as senator because of drug money. We are now a narcopolitical state. Let us not fool ourselves,” he said.

‘We want Jaybee alive’

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who was traveling to Vietnam with the President, advised De Lima to stop being hysterical and just answer the accusations against her.

“We want Jaybee alive [rather] than dead. Who wants him killed? Who benefits if Jaybee dies? Isn’t it De Lima? Because the person who can testify to her connection [to drugs] will be gone,” Aguirre said.

“All of this (investigation of De Lima) is at my instance as secretary of justice. So she should not mislead the people,” he said.

Aguirre showed a letter dated Aug. 4, 2016, that purportedly asked where the P300 million in valuables, including P1.6 million in cash, seized at NBP in a raid on Dec. 15, 2014, had gone.

According to Aguirre, the letter writer said the National Bureau of Investigation turned over the seized valuables to De Lima, who was then the secretary of justice.

He said the letter was addressed to President Duterte, and he planned to get the writer to give a statement at the next House hearing  set for Oct. 5.

“This is what you must answer. You yak too much without really saying anthing,” Aguirre said, referring to De Lima. With a report from Nikko Dizon