De Lima says Malacañang linking rights groups to drug lords, similar to her ‘persecution’

Detained Senator Leila de Lima said Monday Malacañang’s pronouncement that human rights organizations are being used by drug lords to derail Duterte’s war on drugs is reminiscent of her continuing persecution.

“In the same way that the drug war was used to imprison me, intimidate and threaten local government officials, witchhunt enemies, and demonize the opposition, it is now being used to attack human rights advocates and organizations,” De Lima said in a press statement.

She said the statement is both malicious and dangerous as it exposes human rights defenders to the violence of Duterte’s death squads, as Malacañang has now placed them on equal footing with suspected drug offenders.

“This pronouncement also further reveals Duterte’s anti-human rights worldview, now ironically espoused by no less than the former human rights lawyer-turned Duterte death squad apologist presidential spokesperson Harry Roque,” she said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano was the first to make the pronouncement and it was echoed by Roque. 

De Lima said the accusation is a patently baseless propaganda as both the Philippine National Police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency have said that they have no evidence to support Malacañang’s ‘expose.’

“In short, the accusation is nothing but an irresponsible speculation blurted out from the presidential podium, the same way most lies and fake news are now being propagated from the Palace,” she said.

De Lima said that while government officials are linking human rights group to illegal drugs, those earlier accused of alleged involvement in drug operation were untouched.

“One thing is clear though. While linking every individual, organization, and institution that has come out against the murderous drug war to drug lords, Malacañang remains deathly silent on the P6.4-B shabu smuggling scandal that has implicated Duterte’s son and son-in-law,” she said.

“All of a sudden, human rights groups are in cahoots with drug lords, while (former Davao vice mayor) Polong Duterte, Mans Carpio, Small Abellera, and Tita Nanie remain uninvestigated and untouched by the Department of Justice, the PNP, and PDEA,” she added.

The Senate blue ribbon committee that looked into the issue found no evidence to link Polong and Mans of drug smuggling but recommended that a lifestyle check be conducted on the two.

Meanwhile, De Lima also took note of the state prosecutors’ dismissal of the charges against alleged drug lords Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim, and Peter Co. The Justice Department has since called for a reinvestigation following a public uproar on the dismissal.

“Here we are talking about a drug war, but instead of going after drug lords and smugglers, Malacañang is going after human rights groups,” she said.

De Lima said Roque, Cayetano, and even Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo want to implicate human rights groups because, until now, Malacañang has nothing to show for Duterte’s drug war.

“It has nothing to show because it is a fake and hypocritical drug war, in the same way that Duterte’s drug war in Davao was fake. These drug wars are only authentic in one aspect—in the murder and summary execution of thousands of human beings whose perpetrators were never brought to court and never tried for any crime whatsoever,” she said.

“What is this drug war for then when government coddles drug lords in prison, absolves drug lords out of prison, and whitewashes investigations on drug smugglers? What is this drug war but a cover for the witchhunting and intimidation of those who refuse to bow to Duterte’s tyranny, then in Davao, now in the entire country?” she added.

She added the script of Malacañang is already so overused.

“Malacañang needs a new scriptwriter. Creative ones. Roque, Cayetano, and Panelo are already starting to be boring. Nakakasawa at nakakasuka na sila,” she said. — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News