PRRD orders immediate ban on 2 US senators supporting de Lima

MANILA -- President Rodrigo R. Duterte has barred American Senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy from entering the Philippines following their role in the United States’ travel ban imposed on Philippine officials responsible for Senator Leila de Lima’s arrest.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte’s directive, which was made through a phone call on Thursday night, was meant to dispute Durbin and Leahy’s claim that de Lima was “wrongfully” detained.

He, however, clarified that the President was “calm” when he gave the order.

Panelo said the President arrived at the decision to remind other countries that they cannot dictate upon the Philippines, which is an “independent and sovereign state.”

“The President is im

mediately ordering the Bureau of Immigration to deny US Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy, the imperious, uninformed and gullible American legislators who introduced the subject provision in the US 2020 Budget, entry to the Philippines,” Panelo said in a press conference. “No other state can dictate upon our officials, judges, and justices the method upon which we enforce or interpret our laws vis-à-vis those who are believed to have committed a violation against the same.”

Philippine officials who allegedly have a hand in the “wrongful” detention of de Lima are now banned from entering Washington, as stated in the provision included in the USD1.4-trillion US budget for 2020 signed by US President Donald Trump.

De Lima has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City since February 2017 following her supposed involvement in the rampant narcotics trade inside the national penitentiary when she was still justice secretary.

The travel ban imposed on de Lima’s alleged jailers was part of the amendments to the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Section of the budget program introduced by Durbin and Leahy days before the signing of the document last week.

The “Prohibition on Entry” section states that the US Secretary of State “shall apply sub-section (c) to foreign government officials about whom the Secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of… Senator Leila de Lima who (was) arrested in the Philippines in 2017.”

Panelo, however, maintained that de Lima was not politically persecuted.

He said the Philippine court ruled to arrest de Lima, based on sufficient evidence that proves her links to illegal drugs.