IN HER FIRST privileged speech on Tuesday, Senator Leila M. de Lima criticized the spate of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug pushers and users under President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s administration, as well as “the President’s men,” including the House Speaker, amid what she called a “formidable demolition campaign” against her.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte greets Senator Leila M. de Lima at his State of the Nation Address. -- AFP
“I have been vilified and attacked, not only in social media but also by the President’s men, as a drug lord coddler and protector,” Ms. de Lima said in her speech. “The lies are intended to show me as protector of the Bilibid drug lords. But the truth is I was the only Justice Secretary since the 1986 EDSA Revolution who dared to eradicate the dominion of the drug lords inside Bilibid.”
The first-term senator recalled her track record in the Department of Justice under the administration of Benigno S. C. Aquino III. “I myself started the war on drugs at the National Bilibid Prison. On Dec. 15, 2014, I personally led the raid on the drug lords’ dens and took away their power over the rest of the prisoners. I isolated them in Building 14 of the National Penitentiary,” Ms. de Lima said in her speech.
“I myself continued cleaning up the National Bilibid Prison of drugs, in follow-up operations before I resigned as Secretary of Justice... Yes Mr. President, there is no shabu laboratory inside the Bilibid Prison, not even in the tunnels under it,” she added, amid assertions to the contrary by National Police chief Director-General Ronald M. dela Rosa.
“I was put to task by no less than the Speaker of the House, as a sitting Senator of the same Congress that he leads. According to him, a resolution will be filed for an investigation on my alleged role in the proliferation of drugs inside the National Bilibid Prison,” she continued.
“Mr. President, this not only goes against inter-parliamentary courtesy, where the House of Representatives investigates a specific member of its co-equal Senate. It is an affront to the Senate as an institution committed by none other than the leader of its co- equal body in Congress.
“My defense against the Speaker’s call for my investigation in the House is not inter- parliamentary courtesy. That is YOUR defense, Mr. President, when you defend me as a Senator of the Republic and this Senate as an institution from this blatant break of tradition in courtesy between the two Houses, and whenever you decide to demand an end to all this foolishness, before it blows up in our faces.”
The Senate President of the newly opened 17th Congress is Aquilino L. Pimentel III, an ally of House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez in the ruling PDP-Laban.
Ms. de Lima also linked “the Solicitor-General,” Jose C. Calida, to “this demolition job...launched against me.” She also singled out “Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre [for claiming] that high-ranking DoJ (Department of Justice) officials from the previous administration were in the payroll of the NBP (New Bilibid Prison) drug lords. Secretary Aguirre did not mention my name, but going by the previous statements of the Solicitor General and the Speaker, one does not have to be a genius to guess who he is referring to.
“Despite this, I am still giving the Solicitor General, the Speaker, and the Secretary of Justice the benefit of the doubt. It is possible that they are merely being peddled these lies about me by agents of vengeance,” Ms. de Lima said.
She also deplored the conduct of the anti-drug campaign and what she called its “cardboard justice,” as well as “the public reaction” in its favor.
“Yes, Mr. President, indeed, we must wage this war against drugs,” Ms. de Lima said. “But there must be another way. There HAS to be another way. There must be a way other than this method that brings us to our collective descent into impunity, fear, and ultimately, utter and complete in humanity.”
“There might not be a manifest public outcry, but there is definitely a seething undercurrent of remonstration against the disregard for human life,” she added. “Mr. President, [there] are... voices trying to wake up a person sound asleep while his house is burning. But he is in a hallucinating dream of a country’s redemption by bloodletting. It is just that the fire has not yet seared his flesh, and the blood has not yet reached his doorsteps.” -- Julianne S. Ruizol
The first-term senator recalled her track record in the Department of Justice under the administration of Benigno S. C. Aquino III. “I myself started the war on drugs at the National Bilibid Prison. On Dec. 15, 2014, I personally led the raid on the drug lords’ dens and took away their power over the rest of the prisoners. I isolated them in Building 14 of the National Penitentiary,” Ms. de Lima said in her speech.
“I myself continued cleaning up the National Bilibid Prison of drugs, in follow-up operations before I resigned as Secretary of Justice... Yes Mr. President, there is no shabu laboratory inside the Bilibid Prison, not even in the tunnels under it,” she added, amid assertions to the contrary by National Police chief Director-General Ronald M. dela Rosa.
“I was put to task by no less than the Speaker of the House, as a sitting Senator of the same Congress that he leads. According to him, a resolution will be filed for an investigation on my alleged role in the proliferation of drugs inside the National Bilibid Prison,” she continued.
“Mr. President, this not only goes against inter-parliamentary courtesy, where the House of Representatives investigates a specific member of its co-equal Senate. It is an affront to the Senate as an institution committed by none other than the leader of its co- equal body in Congress.
“My defense against the Speaker’s call for my investigation in the House is not inter- parliamentary courtesy. That is YOUR defense, Mr. President, when you defend me as a Senator of the Republic and this Senate as an institution from this blatant break of tradition in courtesy between the two Houses, and whenever you decide to demand an end to all this foolishness, before it blows up in our faces.”
The Senate President of the newly opened 17th Congress is Aquilino L. Pimentel III, an ally of House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez in the ruling PDP-Laban.
Ms. de Lima also linked “the Solicitor-General,” Jose C. Calida, to “this demolition job...launched against me.” She also singled out “Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre [for claiming] that high-ranking DoJ (Department of Justice) officials from the previous administration were in the payroll of the NBP (New Bilibid Prison) drug lords. Secretary Aguirre did not mention my name, but going by the previous statements of the Solicitor General and the Speaker, one does not have to be a genius to guess who he is referring to.
“Despite this, I am still giving the Solicitor General, the Speaker, and the Secretary of Justice the benefit of the doubt. It is possible that they are merely being peddled these lies about me by agents of vengeance,” Ms. de Lima said.
She also deplored the conduct of the anti-drug campaign and what she called its “cardboard justice,” as well as “the public reaction” in its favor.
“Yes, Mr. President, indeed, we must wage this war against drugs,” Ms. de Lima said. “But there must be another way. There HAS to be another way. There must be a way other than this method that brings us to our collective descent into impunity, fear, and ultimately, utter and complete in humanity.”
“There might not be a manifest public outcry, but there is definitely a seething undercurrent of remonstration against the disregard for human life,” she added. “Mr. President, [there] are... voices trying to wake up a person sound asleep while his house is burning. But he is in a hallucinating dream of a country’s redemption by bloodletting. It is just that the fire has not yet seared his flesh, and the blood has not yet reached his doorsteps.” -- Julianne S. Ruizol
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento