It had all the badges of a seasonal roadshow in the Senate.
Freshman senator and ex-Justice Secretary Leila de Lima initiated a Senate inquiry about how the Philippine National Police uses deadly force in its ongoing campaign against the illegal drug trade plaguing the country. The hearings were covered on national television, and Senator de Lima seemed to be enjoying the public attention. For a senator who refuses to be interpellated, de Lima sure asked a lot of questions during the hearings.
Senator De Lima brands the deaths arising from the anti-narcotics operations of the PNP as extra-judicial killings, and blames President Rodrigo Duterte for them. That is why she summoned the PNP top brass to the Senate investigation.
De Lima’s mindset against President Duterte is nothing new. When De Lima was still justice secretary and eyeing inclusion in the senatorial slate of the abusive Liberal Party of President Benigno Aquino III, her statements to the media associated Duterte with so-called “death squads” in Davao City when the latter was still the city mayor. Since Duterte was a strong contender for the presidency back then, De Lima’s tirade against Duterte was probably her way of campaigning for the LP presidential bet, Mar Roxas.
The cops are not the only ones being subjected to an investigation. De Lima herself is currently facing a query as to how and why, during her watch as justice secretary, convicted bigtime drug lords detained at the national penitentiary enjoyed special privileges like air-conditioned quarters, catered food, and access to large sums of cash, firearms, electronic appliances, mobile phones, and the internet —extra-ordinary perks which could not have been possible without the knowledge and tacit consent of the justice secretary and her prison officials.
Last August 17, the case against De Lima took a surprise turn. In a speech delivered at Camp Crame in Quezon City that day, President Duterte announced that Senator De Lima took bribes from the convicted drug lords at the national penitentiary, and that her driver was her collection agent. What’s more, Duterte said that De Lima and her driver are lovers. It was also disclosed to the news media that de Lima gifted her driver houses in Pangasinan.
Although Senator De Lima denounced the exposé, she did not categorically deny any of the allegations against her. Instead, de Lima appealed to the public’s emotion by accusing the President of bullying her. De Lima added that the President should focus his remarks against her, and that he should not include her family and friends in their fight. She also scored the President for portraying her as an immoral woman.
As expected, De Lima’s partymates in the Senate like Franklin Drilon, Risa Hontiveros and Francis Pangilinan took her side and asked Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to initiate a collective stand against the President. Good grief!
If Pimentel knows his law, he should not allow himself be used by those LP politicians.
The Constitution provides that public service is a public trust, and that public officials are, at all times, accountable to the people. Senator De Lima is a public official, and being so, her public life is fair game for public scrutiny and criticism. All aspects of her private life, however, are excluded from the public scope, unless her private conduct is something that involves public interest, or is a matter the public is rightfully entitled to know.
Indeed, a public official’s love life is a private matter, but when the romance smacks of involvement in an irregularity or a crime, privacy may not be invoked, and the relationship is open to public scrutiny. The adjective “public” is broad enough to include the President.
In other words, the romance between a senator and her driver is none of the public’s business, but if there are good reasons to inquire if the senator and the driver are involved in a crime, then the love affair becomes the public’s business.
The President has made a very damaging revelation against Senator De Lima, one that posits that the senator is on the payroll of the big-time drug lords in the country, and that her own driver is her bagman. Duterte’s statement regarding the driver being the senator’s alleged lover seems pertinent enough—it is easier to entrust large sums of money with a lover than with just an ordinary hireling.
Truth to tell, the President’s revelation is not so much about a senator’s alleged romance with her driver, but more about a senator allegedly receiving bribe money from convicted drug lords detained at the penitentiary. It just so happens that, according to the President at least, the senator and the driver are lovers. Unfortunately for De Lima, however, the allegation about the romantic affair is difficult for the public and the media to ignore.
De Lima drew first blood. She accused Duterte of masterminding extra-judicial killings. Duterte retorted with his own accusation against her. De Lima, however, took offense at the President’s disclosure, and claimed that they are uncalled for. Surprisingly, De Lima does not explain how and why the disclosure is uncalled for.
From all indications, it looks like there is no valid basis for De Lima’s public protestations against the incriminating firebomb released by the President. Her indignation is misplaced.
The senators of the LP who took the side of De Lima should refrain from needlessly turning the Senate against President Duterte, when what the President disclosed to the public is a matter of immense public interest.
Instead of wasting their time pacifying their controversial colleague, these senators should start being useful to the people by enacting a law that will get rid of the political dynasties bedeviling this country. If the record of the LP leadership from 2010-2016 is a preview of the future, the LP senators, De Lima included, would be a collective disappointment to the people.
