‘Duterte ordered stabbing of NBP inmate Jaybee Sebastian’
Sen. Leila de Lima insists that it was President Duterte himself who ordered the stabbing of high- profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian to coerce him into testifying against her.
The lawmaker, together with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, is accused by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II of being behind the stabbing of Sebastian inside the New Bilibid Prison late last September.
“I have my own sources, very credible ones, about who’s behind that stabbing incident which victimized four of the Bilibid 19, including Jaybee Sebastian, and why they did that. The President himself ordered that and it was implemented by his enforcers,” De Lima claimed.
She added that the President and his cohorts are capable of doing anything, including criminal acts.
In the past, De Lima also accused Duterte of being a murderer, citing the testimony of self-confessed Davao death squad member Edgar Matobato who identified the former mayor as the one who either ordered most of the killings in Davao City or personally killed some people.
The attempt to kill Sebastian, she said, was a way of coercing him to cooperate with the administration in pinning her down as coddler of illegal drug traders.
“Clearly, that’s one sure way of coercing Sebastian to testify and lie against me as they eventually did after such stabbing incident. They have the capacity and resources to do anything and everything, including downright criminal acts, in order to implement and consummate a presidential vendetta to destroy De Lima at all costs,” she added.
De Lima said the filing of new criminal charges against her was expected even as she decried her continued persecution under the Duterte administration, referring to the drug trafficking and graft charges the National Bureau of Investigation ( NBI) filed against her, her former driver Ronnie Dayan and alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.
“What else is new? I expected that already and I am expecting more cases in this continuing saga of madness and persecution,” the senator said.
She lamented that while the administration was quick in filing cases against her – with suspected drug lords and convicts acting as state witnesses – it was slow in charging its own officials.
“The big- time criminals are the ones absolved or to be absolved as long as De Lima is charged and jailed. What travesty of truth and justice!” the senator said.
She said the Department of Justice and the NBI were exercising the “gravest form of selective justice” as the agencies were not investigating the bribery and extortion scandal at the Bureau of Immigration involving two associate commissioners who are fraternity brothers of the justice secretary and the President.
–