Police bar Liberal International president from visiting De Lima

Liberal International president Juli Minoves was barred from visiting detained Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

#TODAY: @JuliMinoves, @LoeningMarkus of @liberalinternat visits Sen. De Lima. (Minoves LI Prexy barred from entering the Custodial Cntr) pic.twitter.com/mVJ65hi20o

— Leila de Lima (@SenLeiladeLima) July 22, 2017

De Lima's media relations officer Ferdie Maglalang confirmed this to GMA News Online.

But, Markus Loening, chair of LI’s Human Rights Committee and Friedrich Naumann Foundation-Philippines president Wolfgang Heinze were allowed to visit De Lima.

"We notified on Monday, so that is more than five days in advance than my coming here. I came especially for a meeting with Senator De Lima. Together with the Human Rights advisor (Markus Loening), president of our committee in our organization," Minoves told reporters in an ambush interview.

Minoves who was compelled to wait outside the custodial center said authorities used an "administrative excuse" in preventing his visit to De Lima, saying that they could not find the memo requesting for an official visit.

"They have used an administrative excuse that they cannot find the letter. General Philips [Chief Superintendent Philip Phillips], in fact, is hiding the fact that I am here and is trying to prevent me from entering and meeting Senator De Lima. This doesn’t happen normally in democracy, this only happens in regimes that are not democratic," he said.

He firmly protested the refusal for him to meet De Lima, noting that such act shows how the government is supposedly detaining De Lima without the presumption of innocence.

"I firmly protest. I think this shows exactly what the regime is doing which is basically detaining Senator De Lima without the presumption of innocence and preventing international people from visiting her is basically threatening any body, the fact that they even need five days to decide arbitrarily whether people come and visit her is something that goes against any ruling in international law," Minoves said.

"So, I protest and I am very disappointed by this but at the same time, people will realize, here and abroad how arbitrary this detention is," he added.

Asked on his purpose on visiting De Lima, Minoves, who is a former Andorran Permanent representative to the Headquarters of the United Nations, said that he just wanted to check the condition and situation of De Lima.

"My purpose is just to inquire about her detention and knowing politically how things are doing in the Philippines. Having a contact, the Liberal Party of the Philippines is a full member of Liberal International. We are an international organization of over 100 political parties. We are observers of the United Nations," he said.

He added that they have raised the issue on De Lima's detention to the United Nations.

"We, of course, raised the issue of Sen. De Lima in the United Nations so obviously we are interested in having contact directly with her to understand better how she is doing; if she is well treated and how is her detention is," Minoves said.

Meanwhile, Minoves argued that "presumption of innocence" should be warranted to detainees.

"We believe in the presumption of innocence. We believe that people who are detained should have the guarantees of a democracy, of the rule of law and we are not sure of what is happening," he said.

"And the fact that I am being prevented from seeing her actually makes me believe that this is exactly what is happening in the Philippines that there is no presumption of innocence and there is an arbitrary power that prevents people from visiting prisoners that are being kept so long in this kind of preventive detention. It's unthinkable," he added.

Representatives from the European Parliament subcommittee on human rights on Wednesday visited De Lima.

The delegation was led by four members of the subcommittee on human rights, Soraya Post, Adam Kósa, Josef Weidenholzer, and Rikke Karlsson.

They urged authorities to allow De Lima to participate in the voting on legislative proposals as it would allow the latter to "fulfill" her duties.

De Lima was arrested in February over drug-related charges. The neophyte senator has repeatedly denied any involvement in the illegal drug trade, saying she is a victim of political persecution. —Marlly Rome C. Bondoc/LBG/ALG, GMA News