PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday kept up the attack on Senator Leila de Lima, saying she had only herself to blame for the scandal that has befallen her.
“[De Lima] created the scandal, she know she’s a public official — but she kept on making scandals herself [when she was chairperson of the Commission on] Human Rights, and doing the same as secretary of Justice,” Duterte said in an interview with reporters during a visit at Camp Sinsuat in Maguindanao.
“[You’re in] public office, De Lima — your life is an open book,” he added.
On Wednesday, Duterte said De Lima had links to drug syndicates inside the National Bilibid Prison through her driver-lover, receiving money from the illegal drug trade to bankroll her successful 2016 senatorial bid.
Duterte also accused De Lima of having an illicit affair with her driver, Ronnie Dayan — a long time staff of hers whom he implicated in the illegal drug trade.
A teary-eyed De Lima said that the attacks against her were “foul” and accused the President of abusing and misusing his executive powers.
Duterte, however, said everything he said about her was true.
“It’s because it’s true that she was caught [having an affair.] Imagine, she took an oath, but is taking in [her] driver as paramour,” he said.
He also denied that he had gone overboard in his attacks.
“I did not, but she did when she blamed police [for the extra-judicial killings]. Son of a bitch, police are dying. Why is she speaking without evidence?” Duterte said.
He told reporters he had the goods on De Lima and said they would use her driver as a witness against the senator.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo shot back against the De Lima, saying that she should answer the allegations against her instead of grandstanding before media.
“The question that the good senator should respond to is: Is the information given by President Duterte on her true or not? In her press conference she called she did not deny nor refute the information,” Panelo told the Manila Standard.
Duterte said that De Lima was the only one who was not aware that she had a “driver-lover” whom she failed to acknowledge all these time while facing the media.
He also urged journalists to dig out the facts themselves.
“She can have all the time in the world. If you want to know the truth, you go to the Justice Department and Commission on Human Rights. Then you validate what I said,” he added.
Panelo said the President was merely “informing the public,” not accusing De Lima.
Panelo said that the President was fed up with De Lima, who served six years as Justice secretary under the Aquino administration but failed to prove her allegations that Duterte was linked to the Davao Death Squad.
“She never filed any criminal complaint against the President. As an official policy, the President welcomes any investigation by any entity or any branch of the government on the extra-judicial killings as in fact he has directed the PNP to investigate the same,” he added.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III dismissed calls for the Senate to take a stand against Duterte, saying this would only prove the allegations that the Senate was an “old boys’ club” that protected their own.
Senator Richard Gordon said taking a unified stand in the Duterte-De Lima word war would put the Senate in a difficult position.
“Why should we take a position? What if they come with evidence?” he said.
De Lima’s allies in the Liberal Party had earlier called for a unified stand against Duterte’s “unprecedented attack” on a member of the Senate.
Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, a nephew of Duterte, said he hoped the word war could be resolved peacefully.
“Everything can be settled amicably among honorable servants of the people,” Nograles, chairman of the House appropriations committee, told reporters at a news conference when asked to comment on the issue.
“Step back and relax. It takes a lot of moral courage and restraint to do that, but as officers of government, I believe he will do the right thing,” Nograles said.
But Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat said Duterte’s attacks on De Lima were unpresidential. With Maricel V. Cruz