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De Lima disappointed over SC dismissal of petition seeking disclosure of Duterte's health records
By DONA MAGSINO, GMA News Detained opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the petition asking Malacanang to disclose the health records of President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a statement, De Lima said the motu proprio junking of the plea without requiring a comment from the Palace was "expected" from a court dominated by Duterte's appointees.
Last week, the SC released a resolution that declared lawyer Dino De Leon's allegations in the petition as "unsubstantiated."
It stressed that Duterte's holding of regular Cabinet meetings refutes the petitioner's claim that the 75-year-old President is suffering from serious illness.
Justices Marvic Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa were the only two who disagreed with the dismissal of the petition without requiring Malacañang to comment first.
"One would wonder if the televised addresses the Court’s majority were watching were other than those viewed by the whole nation. What is incoherent to the general public appears to the Court to be a sign of the President 'performing his duties,'" De Lima said.
"God save us from Justices who consider that incoherent ramblings on 'the kit is the kit', the bubonic plague and the burning of witches, the insufferable narrative on the blood of dead horses, etc., etc. are the pinnacle of presidential performance of duties," she added.
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SC Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta was appointed by Duterte in October 2019 after the retirement of another administration appointee former Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin.
A former Justice secretary, De Lima lamented that it would be dangerous for Filipinos to have two other branches of the government that allegedly cannot act independently from the executive branch during the COVID-19 situation.
"It is indeed our great misfortune that the pandemic has stricken us at a time when men and women of greater minds have chosen to be supplicants to a deranged one," she said.
Among the illnesses that Duterte previously claimed to have were Buerger's disease, a condition that caused constriction of the blood vessels due to nicotine; Barrett's esophagus, a disease involving the tissue in the esophagus; and myasthenia gravis, a disease that causes muscle weakness.
Earlier this month, the public noticed that Duterte looked quite frail while delivering a speech in Zamboanga City.
The Palace dismissed speculations and said the President looked sickly not because of health-related issues but due to extreme sadness brought about by the shooting incident that transpired between the police and military in Jolo, Sulu.—AOL, GMA News