PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte scored his nemesis Senator Leila de Lima for pursuing a Senate investigation on his alleged involvement with the Davao Death Squad, even though she cannot present strong evidence linking him to the extrajudicial killings in his city.
‘This is my advice to de Lima, you beter hang yourself because I have in my hands (the sex video). I’m already viewing it,” he said.
“De Lima, she was seven years as chairman of the Human Rights. She kept on accusing me, but she never filed a case. As secretary of Justice, she was building a name at my expense to become popular. So what now? Look, she was not only screwing her driver, she was screwing the nation,” Duterte said in his speech during the inauguration of the Misamis Power Plant.
“That bitch, look at her at the Senate, she even brought a witness, that Matobato, now she’s bringing him up against me,” he added.
Duterte also adviced De Lima, whom he earlier called “a porn actress” to hang herself, as her sex escapades placed the country in great danger.
“This is the first time that I have seen a woman, whose face made rounds in social media, smiling while being f****d. P***** i**, if that was my mother, I would shoot her. That is a lesson to be learned,” Duterte said.
Duterte said De Lima was using the Senate investigation for her personal vendetta against him and said the investigation was “mere politics.”
“These were just used by the opposition as a political tool against me. No problem,” he said.
Duterte has repeatedly accused the senator of having a sex video with her long time driver-bodyguard, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan and called her an adulterer.
Duterte also said that Dayan collected drug money for De Lima inside the national penitentiary, now a subject of an ongoing House investigation with all witnesses linking her to the illegal drug trade.
De Lima has repeatedly denied making a sex video, adding that the President is trying to manufacture evidence against her.
But Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday declared that there is sufficient basis to file criminal cases against De Lima for her involvement in the proliferation of illegal drugs trade in the New Bilibid Prison.
“Based on testimonial evidence of witnesses presented [in the House of Representatives inquiry] so far, we can already have a very sufficient case,” Aguirre said.
“We can actually file a case in court at this point because we have enough evidence already,” he added.
Aguirre said De Lima could be charged with violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
He said if probable cause is established upon preliminary investigation, cases could be filed against the senator for which there is no bail.
He added that should the prosecutors prove the charges in court, De Lima could face life imprisonment.
Aguirre cited statements of high-profile inmates led by robbery and carnapping convict Herbert Colangco, who said that they gave millions of pesos in payola to De Lima and that fellow high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian tapped them to sell drugs from prison to raise funds for De Lima’s senatorial campaign last May.
Aguirre said the testimony of Director Benjamin Magalong, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) that De Lima staged a raid to protect Sebastian was equally damning.
The DoJ chief, a litigation lawyer, said they are now working on gathering additional documentary evidence further strengthen the case against De Lima.
“We still need documentary evidence like bank records. That’s why we’re asking for assistance of the AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council),” he said.
The AMLC has forwarded to the DoJ several documents, but Aguirre said there are still additional documents needed for the probe.
He acknowledged that it might be difficult to find a paper trail to De Lima, however.
Aguirre also denied De Lima’s claim that Marine Lt. Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino, who faced drug charges before the DoJ, was being coerced to testify against her.
