Dictatorship feared with de Lima’s arrest

MANILA: Allies of Senator Leila de Lima described her persecution as an attempt of President Rodrigo Duterte’s government to silence his critics.

Vice-President Leni Robredo and other allies condemned her arrest on Friday on drug charges, saying it was meant to silence all opposition to Duterte and showed an emerging dictatorship.

They said the legal process had been railroaded to ensure she spent time in jail to create a “chilling effect” among those who expressed their disagreement with policies of the Duterte administration, particularly his bloody war on drugs.

Robredo, who was forced to step down from the Cabinet last year, suggested that the Duterte government is beginning to turn towards the same dictatorial rule that the country had endured under Ferdinand Marcos with the arrest of De Lima, one of the President’s fiercest critics.

In a speech at the University of the Philippines School of Econo- mics, her alma mater, Robredo said some of the nation’s leaders would like Filipinos to forget the atrocities under Marcos’ martial law and glorify his dictatorship “to revise the history so that he is remembered a hero, and not the thief and murderer that he was”.

“Some leaders want to raise the fist of authoritarianism, to sow fear and discord among ourselves, to divide us with lies, violence and bloodshed. It has begun,” she said.

Addressing Duterte directly, Robredo said instead of silencing dissenters the President should deal with issues that matter to ordinary Filipinos.

“Mr President, we call you to task. In behalf of the Filipino people, whose daily struggles are escalating, we ask you to focus on the war that really matters: the war on poverty. Our people are hungry, jobless and poor,” she said in a stinging criticism of Duterte.