Duterte assures “100 percent” safety of detained Senator de Lima 

February 27, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte assured on Monday the "100 percent" safety of detained Senator Leila de Lima.

In an interview in Malacanang, Duterte said people want to see De Lima, who is facing drug charges, in jail.

"I assure (you) that she is safe. I think people are interested not to see her dead but to see her in prison for what she did," Duterte said. "Yes. I am sure that she is 100 percent safe there," he added.

De Lima is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court issued a warrant of arrest against De Lima last week after finding probable cause on her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade inside New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

De Lima has denied the allegations. On Monday, her lawyer went to the Supreme Court to ask for the nullification of the arrest warrant.

After what happened to De Lima, a critic of the president, Duterte was asked if there was reason for his other critics to be worried about. "Unless you are involved in drugs, you should be. You’re a critic of what? Of the drug campaign and you are --- yourself into drugs? You should be afraid," he said,

Duterte said he was not interfering with the work of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, whose office filed three separate drug cases against De Lima.

"Truth to tell, honestly, I have not called Aguirre once. That's the truth. I do not interfere with their jobs," he said.

Asked on the call of his supporters to make Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, his critic also, as the next target after De Lima, Duterte said, "It’s too insignificant to bother yourself."

On his message to De Lima, Duterte said, "Well, she can always pray that the truth will come out eventually if there is another truth." Celerina Monte/DMS