De Lima: Roque's 'one of a kind' comment bares Duterte's selective justice

Senator Leila De Lima on Friday lashed out at presidential spokesperson Harry Roque after the secretary said she was "one of a kind" when President Rodrigo Duterte  linked her to  illegal drugs and had her investigated.

De Lima said the remark of the Palace spokesperson showed how justice is dispensed under the Duterte administration.

"May kasabihan tayo: ang isda ay nahuhuli sa sariling bibig. In the case of Harry Roque, 'one of a kind' is an admission of this regime’s policy of selective justice, corrupt persecution and targeted oppression," De Lima said.

Duterte earlier this week balked at naming congressmen under investigation by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, saying they belonged to a separate and co-equal branch of government.

He had been naming officials in graft cases in his weekly televised briefings.

De Lima was not given the same courtesy despite being a member of the Senate.

"I have only one question for Roque. Would his master have treated me as 'one of a kind' if, like him, I sucked up to Duterte unconditionally and praised him to kingdom come as my very own Poon? I don’t think so," De Lima said.

The opposition senator said Duterte "let loose" the legislative and executive branches to demolish her, accusing her of being involved in the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she refused to be mum on the spate of killings allegedly linked to the administration's war on drugs.

Being a former Justice Secretary, De Lima acknowledged that the DOJ, through the National Bureau of Investigation, could  conduct a fact-finding probe against lawmakers and thereafter file a criminal complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman.

However, she lamented that the DOJ did not file the complaints against her with the Ombudsman when it pressed drug cases against her in 2017.

"Instead, it conducted its own preliminary investigation and railroaded the same, filing the charges with the regular courts instead of the Sandiganbayan that has jurisdiction over offenses of public officials committed in relation to their public office," De Lima said.

Senator Panfilo Lacson said he found it inconsistent for the President to say that he has no authority to name nor investigate congressmen when the executive branch, through the DOJ, did the same to De Lima.

"Well, as lawyers kasi you can evaluate evidence for yourself lalo na dating public prosecutor ang Pangulo ‘no," Roque said in a briefing earlier this week when asked why Duterte was so quick to hurl allegations against De Lima who was also a member of Congress.

"So malinaw na malinaw pa sa sikat ng araw iyong pananagutan ni Leila de Lima sa illegal drug trafficking," he added.

"At ito namang pagdating sa mga kongresista na nakiki-collude daw sa mga contractors, mas competent po talagang mag-evaluate niyan ang Ombudsman... Si Leila De Lima naman po, one of a kind," Roque said, adding that drug trafficking was a jurisdiction of public prosecutors. -NB, GMA News