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PRIVILEGE SPEECH

De Lima calls for stop in extrajudicial killings of drug suspects


Sen. Leila de Lima on Tuesday asked for a stop in the spate of extrajudicial killings and summary executions that she said became prevalent under the "do-it- yourself justice" system of the Duterte administration.

In her first privilege speech, De Lima said people behind "this terrifying trend in law enforcement" must be held accountable and urged the public to "continue opposing the murder of the innocents as well as that of the suspects."

A former Justice Secretary, De Lima also called for an investigation of killings perpetrated by the vigilante assassins."

"In the campaign against criminality, we cannot applaud criminal methods merely because we are left unaffected," she said. "Life has more value than an accusation written on a piece of cardboard whether you are rich or a scum of the earth."

De Lima also explained that the sheer figures of deaths by extrajudicial killings and summary executions seem to numb some people desperate to weed out the cruelty of illegal drug trade on Filipino families, especially among children.

"The fact that our attention span has waned as I enumerated only a fraction of these killings already shows how desensitized we have grown to the killings as mere numbers and statistics," she said.

De Lima defends self

In the same speech, De Lima also denied accusations that she did nothing to stop illegal drug operations inside the national penitentiary during her stint in the Department of Justice under the Aquino administration.

According to her, she started the war on drugs at the New Bilibid Prison where she even personally led the raid on the drug lords’ dens.

"Sa termino ko lang po bilang Justice secretary nag-umpisang maglinis sa Bilibid. Sa termino ko lang po giniba ang mga mararangyang kubol ng drug lords at naitapon sila sa Building 14, hiwalay sa mga ordinaryong preso," she said.

She added the raid started at different entry points of the prison compound in order to catch the drug lords “literally with their pants down.”

“It can be described as systematically executed simultaneous raids on each and every drug lords’ luxury kubol,” the neophyte senator said.

De Lima said she continued cleaning up the NBP of drugs in follow-up operations before she resigned as DOJ secretary to prepare for his senatorial candidacy in the May 9 elections.

"This anti-drug campaign at the Bilibid eventually culminated with Oplan Galugad. Together with this is the confirmation that there is no shabu laboratory inside the national penitentiary. Yes Mr President, there is no shabu laboratory inside the Bilibid prisons, not even in the tunnels under it," she said.

Demolition job

She said all her efforts are forgotten in the face of a formidable demolition campaign against her in the social media.

“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. I have been ridiculed and called names, photos are photoshopped, videos are spliced, lies are manufactured,” De Lima said.

She said no less than House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez put her to task when he said that a resolution will be filed for an investigation in her alleged role in the proliferation of drugs inside the Bilibid.

"This is not only 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," she said.

De Lima also mentioned that current Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II had claimed that high-ranking DOJ officials from the previous administration were in the payroll of the NBP drug lords.

“Secretary Aguirre did not mention my name but going by the previous statements of the Solicitor General (Jose Calida)  and the Speaker, one does not have to be a genius to guess who he is referring to. I am outraged that he has qualified this matter-of-fact statement with the actual truth that he has yet to create a task force that will yet to conduct an actual investigation on his foregone conclusion that indeed there were pay-offs to DOJ officials,” she said. 

Cayetano: Konti pa

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano tried to interpellate De Lima, but she refused prompting him to deliver his own privilege speech.

In his speech, Cayetano, Duterte's running mate in the May 9 elections, said the feeling of security of the people is the new normal. 

“The old normal was dati walang magawa ang tao sa pusher, walang magawa ang tao pag binabastos sila. There was no security before,” he said as he defended Duterte by saying that the President did not order the killing of unarmed suspects.

“Never na narinig ko sa kanya na sinabing ang walang laban ay patayin. Never sinabi ng Pangulo na pag may summary killing o EJK (extrajudicial killing) na ginawa [ay] hindi paparusahan,” he said.

Cayetano also said the number of drug suspects who were killed is not that high.

“Bakit po napakarami ng pinapatay ngayon? Actually po hindi marami, konti pa… Hindi ko sinasabi na kailangang mas maraming mamatay, ang sinasabi ko kailangang matigil ang droga at mawala na ang ibang mga pusher,” he said.

“Three million po ang pusher, ang adik. So sabihin mo na po sa bawat 1,000 adik, isang pusher so you have 300,000 pushers. E ang problema po sa pushers, mahigit kalahati sa kanila gumagamit din at mahirap sa gumagamit, karamihan sa kanila armado,” he added. —KBK, GMA News

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