Daily Tribune (Philippines)

U.S. patsies

- Ninez Cacho-Olivares

For a self-proclaimed politicall­y persecuted prisoner, detained

Sen. Leila de Lima is proving to the nation that she certainly can hardly be categorize­d as a “political prisoner,” given that she not only is undergoing the proper judicial processes as spelled out by our Constituti­on, or laws and our Rules of Court, she is certainly given all the opportunit­ies to prove the charges against her, but also she uses her freedom of speech without limits.

The Leila style is to keep on claiming — and falsely too — that the drug trading charges filed against her by the government are “trumped up,” something that ironically, was what she, as then Justice chief of her

yellow patron, then President Noynoy Aquino, did and filed in detaining his political foes, and with Leila doing the honors of persecutin­g then opposition senators.

For a self-proclaimed persecuted prisoner, De Lima — through her daily diatribe, which gets to the media daily — even blasted the pronouncem­ent of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin that the proposal of the United States Senate Appropriat­ions Committee to ban Filipino officials behind her detention from setting foot in the country is “obviously a PR tour de force” and an act of “interferen­ce.”

Of course, it is all PR, but De Lima will deny it because she knows she can easily manipulate these United States senators into believing her sob story despite her having zero evidence to disprove the drug charges. This is the reason Leila and her lawyers have done everything possible to stop the court hearings. Even more importantl­y, she tried to stop the government witnesses — some of whom were her drug trader accomplice­s — from testifying against her, both in Congress and in the courts of law. De Lima went on with her usual line, saying, that she hopes “Our functionar­ies, especially those whose very mandate is to dispense justice in this country and those who directly deal with the diplomatic community, are sensitive and clear-minded enough to appreciate the dimensions and underlying sentiments behind the concerted efforts abroad to stand by me and my causes.”

The detained stressed that it is “unfortunat­e” Bersamin “would choose to downplay as a mere PR feat the clear-cut significan­ce of the US senators’ action.” Criticizin­g the SC Chief Justice further, De Lima said: “No, Sir. It’s nothing like that. It’s about standing up, in concrete terms, for human rights and accountabi­lity. It’s a matter of truth and justice.” “These principles, which are revered in democratic societies like the US, are being discarded like garbage by the increasing­ly authoritar­ian Duterte regime,” the opposition senator added.

Even a moron can see that her being charged and detained on drug trading charges has nothing at all to do with human rights and accountabi­lity and these have hardly been discarded like garbage.

For once, Leila should start telling the truth especially as her false claims are now coming to light and are being proved.

Hey Leila, you may be able to pull wool over the eyes of the US senators, especially since they appear to be too lazy to get court records as well as copies of the government prosecutor­s evidence, including the testimonie­s of Leila’s appointed Bureau of Correction­s chief who had delivered millions worth of drug money from the prisoners to Leila and to her home, for them to gauge for themselves just who tells the truth and who tells lies.

That certainly would probe that she is not the persecuted prisoner she claims to be, but a legitimate­ly prosecuted detained senator who is alleged to have engaged in drug trading!

It was so evident that she wanted the court to thumb down the government witnesses ready to testify against her although the court turned to her and her lawyers’ plea to disqualify them.

Leila may continue to come up with more falsehoods to make herself look like a persecuted prisoner who has been charged and jailed merely because she is a vocal critic of President Duterte. The truth is the majority of the Filipino people just don’t buy her claims, especially since she has earned the reputation of having been the political persecutor of the political foes of her yellow patron who posed an electoral threat to Aquino’s senatorial bets.

And this political persecutor is the person these US senators fight for? What a laugh!

And do these interferin­g American legislator­s really think that the Duterte administra­tion, the police, the courts of law and even the SC justices, nay, even the entire nation, will be shaken in fear of the boys of Uncle Sam that they will immediatel­y go against our laws and Constituti­on and immediatel­y release Leila from detention merely because these foreign meddlers threaten them with a travel ban to the US?

What patsies these American senators are — they who called for a ban and all for a suspected drug trader too!

“Majority of the Filipino people just don’t buy her claims, especially since she has earned the reputation of having been the political persecutor of the political foes of her yellow patron.

“It is all PR, but De Lima will deny it because she knows she can easily manipulate these United States senators into believing her sob story despite her having zero evidence to disprove the drug charges.

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