De Lima: Arroyo, allies in cahoots with Duterte ‘to destroy me’

Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Senator Leila de Lima has accused former President and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies of  forming an alliance with the President along with what she described as “PDAF senators” to destroy her.

PDAF was the lawmakers’ priority development assistance fund also known as “pork barrel,” which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

As former Justice Secretary, De Lima initiated the filing of complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman against some senators, congressmen and other government officials allegedly involved in the “pork barrel” scam.

“Alam nyo naman na ang ating Pangulo, mayroon talagang dinididib na personal vendetta against me since 2009 so here he is, naging pangulo, vindictive as he is kaya pagkakataon nya ito na balikan ako,” the senator said during the regular Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday.

(You know our President, he really has a personal vendetta against me since 2009, so here he is, he became president, vindictive as he is, he has a chance to get back at me.)

“And then there are other personalities who are just too happy that they have a president like that who is hell-bent [on] destroying Leila de Lima and therefore they are exploiting that part of the President, that weakness in the character of the President of being vindictive to their own benefit also, to serve their respective agenda,” she said.

De Lima said she was referring to personalities “especially the powerful ones,” who wanted to get back at her after she filed cases against them.

She noted how some people kept blaming her for stopping Arroyo from leaving the country to seek medical treatment abroad in 2011.

READ: Government stops Arroyo flight

“And even the President is now saying, ang sinabi nya (he said): I will suffer daw the same fate of that of former President GMA (Arroyo’s initials), in other words, I’ll be locked up in jail and rot in jail. Those are the exact words of President Duterte,” she said.

“Dahil nga magkakampi na sila ngayon, may mga political alliances na sila, GMA forces and then yung mga PDAF senators. Alam ko meron silang mga tao, mga inuutusan dyan to also make my life difficult…” the senator added.

(Because they are now allies, they now have political alliances, GMA forces and the PDAF senators. I know that  they order people to make my life difficult.)

Asked if she was saying that Arroyo was behind alleged efforts to destroy her, De Lima said, “I think so.”

Asked if the “PDAF senators” she was referring to were the three former senators who have been charged in the pork barrel scam, De Lima said, “Baka hindi naman tatlo, baka hindi yung lahat ng tatlo.(Maybe not all three.)”

The three are former Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, and Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, who have been detained at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Based on her own information, De Lima said, only one or two PDAF senators were allegedly involved in a plot against her.

Even the Intelligence Force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, she said, was also allegedly “actively involved in getting the so-called evidence and convincing those so-called witnesses in turning against me.”

“And sino ngayon ang (And now who is the) National Security Adviser?” the senator asked.

De Lima said these forces have allied with the President and were using the latter’s ire at her to advance their own agenda, which is to get back at her.

“Payback time ang nasa isip nila (is what’s on their minds),” she said. “And why is that? For simply doing my job as then Secretary of Justice and when I raided Bilibid I was also doing my job pero bakit binabaligtad na nila ngayon lahat (but why are they taking it all against me now)?”

“Is there anything fair, is there anything just in what they are doing to me? As I’ve been telling you, up to my last breath, I will maintain and profess innocence because that’s the truth, I have nothing to do with the drug trade either within or outside Bilibid.” CDG/rga