Palace on US Senate panel move to ban PH officials over De Lima’s detention: ”Insulting, offensive act”

September 27, 2019

Malacanang said on Friday it was an insult and offensive to the Filipinos the move by a US Senate panel approving an amendment to a pending bill that will prohibit entry of Philippine government officials involved in the continuous detention of opposition Senator Leila de Lima.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said such undertaking was a "brazen attempt to intrude" into the Philippine domestic legal process, noting that the cases against De Lima are being heard by the local courts.

"It seeks to place pressure upon our independent institutions thereby effectively interfering with our nation’s sovereignty," he said. 

"It is an insult to the competence and capacity of our duly constituted authorities as such act makes it appear that this US Senate panel has the monopoly of what is right and just," said Panelo, who is also the chief presidential legal counsel. 

"It is an outright disrespect to our people's clamor for law and order. It treats our country as an inferior state unqualified to run its own affairs," he added. 

Panelo said that all sensible Filipinos, regardless of their political or social association, "should feel affronted and disrespected by this insulting and offensive act."

On his Twitter account,  US Senator Dick Durbin hailed the Senate Appropriations move "to prohibit entry to any Philippine Government Officials involved in the politically motivated imprisonment" of De Lima since 2017.

"We mus #FreeLeilaNow," said Durbin, one of the five US senators who earlier asked the Duterte government to free the opposition Filipino senator.

De Lima was allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary when she was justice secretary under the Aquino administration.  

She has denied the allegations, saying she is a victim of political persecution being a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte even when he was mayor of Davao City.

Despite the insult, Panelo said the Palace would not make any "repulsive action" to reverse the move of the American legislators.

"We shall respect their democratic processes, be these in the form of a congressional measure or an immigration policy. We shall leave it to the international community to ascertain which nation values the rule of law in accordance with the principle of state sovereignty," he said.

Panelo insisted that De Lima is "no prisoner of conscience."

While the senator belongs to political opposition, he said it was irrelevant to the illegal drug-related charges against her.

Panelo stressed that the "quantum of evidence of probable cause" as determined by "independent and competent judge," was met, thus, warrant of arrest was issued against De Lima.

He also insisted that De Lima is being afforded all her rights to due process and she herself availed of the legal remedies under the procedural rules.

"The Philippines must enforce its laws equally to all its citizens regardless of political and social status. In this part of the world, more particularly under this Administration, no one is above the law," he said.

Panelo expressed hope that the US senators would focus on their own problems and not of the other countries.

"We continue to mind our own business, as each nation has enough problems that its government should focus on. We hope that the Senate panel of these United States of America shares the same policy," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS