De Lima says ouster as committee chair ‘unimaginable, unprecedented’

Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday branded as “unimaginable” the decision of majority of her colleagues to vote her out as chair of the Senate justice committee.

“For this body to strip me of my Committee in an unprecedented fashion at this point when we have categorical testimony establishing an uncanny similarity between the current phenomenon of the nationwide EJKs and the Davao City EJKs as perpetrated by the Davao Death Squad, was unimaginable,” De Lima said in her privilege speech. 

“I now resolve to imagine more of what the President’s allies are capable of,” she added.

With a vote of 16-4-2, the Senate on Monday voted in favor of Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s motion to declare the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights vacant, thereby ousting the sitting chair, Senator De Lima.

The decision came days after De Lima presented witness Edgar Matobato, a confessed hitman and member of the so-called Davao Death Squad, who claimed that President Rodrigo Duterte was behind several killings in Davao City during his term as mayor.

De Lima was replaced as committee chair by Senator Richard Gordon.

De Lima said she hopes Gordon will not be “cowed by the Executive and act as a mere lackey of Malacañang.”

“I believe that he is also capable of exercising that impartiality that Senator Cayetano has repeatedly drilled into our heads I am not capable of,” De Lima said.

It was Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a close ally of the President, who accused De Lima of destorying the image of the country by shedding light on alleged extrajudicial killings and summary executions amid the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

“I wish you good luck, sir. I can tell you it was not a pleasant experience for me. Not at all. You can have the Justice Committee as well as the offensive and unparliamentary antics of Senator Cayetano,” De Lima said. “Package deal po yan.”

De Lima cited Cayetano’s statements during last week’s hearing wherein he questioned Matobato on the supposed plot of the Liberal Party (LP) to oust Duterte.

De Lima, still a member of the panel, said she would cooperate and behave in the future hearings.

“A Senator Cayetano is enough. I will not bother you with another obnoxious personality in your hearings in the Justice Committee,” she said.

De Lima also said that it would take more than a committee chairmship, a House committee investigation, an Senate ethics committee complaint, and tirades from Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre to take her down.

“No committee chairmanship is worth it, if it means sacrificing my principles and surrendering the causes that I pledged my life to fight for,” De Lima said.

“As the Bible says, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul? I choose to keep my soul,” she added. —NB, GMA News