ONE day after being pilloried in House hearings investigating the proliferation of drugs in the national penitentiary, Senator Leila de Lima launched new attacks on President Rodrigo Duterte, calling him “a narcissist with messianic delusions” who wanted to get at her for launching a Senate probe into extrajudicial killings in his war on illegal drugs.
“Who died and made him king? Well, so far about 3,400 people have died. Without a trial. Again, many under suspicious, if not outright murderous circumstances. Is that the answer?” asked De Lima, who has been tagged by Duterte as the protector of drug lords inside the New Bilibid Prison—a charge she has consistently denied.
Speaking during a dialogue on Human Rights and Democracy at Adamson University, De Lima taunted Duterte, saying he had the sole right to say who was human and who was not.
“For our beloved President, those being killed were not human; they’re criminals,” said De Lima.
She said only Duterte could brush away the guarantees under the Constitution, even though it was ratified by 76 percent of Filipinos, compared to his much lower mandate of about 38.5 percent.
“The Filipino people are idiots. He is wise. The best thing we can do is to stop thinking for ourselves, be silent, and meekly follow him. Blindly. To the precipice and beyond. Because he is omniscient and all-seeing, and we are but ignorant sheep that need his guidance to be divided and led to either salvation or slaughter,” said De Lima.
De Lima also denied accusations raised against her in the House, saying these were payback for her launching a Senate investigation into the rising death toll in Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
“He thinks and acts like he’s the king—no, a god—therefore, he is? In truth, he’s affirming the consequent: they are dead, therefore they must have been criminals and, hence, not human,” said De Lima.
She said it’s likely that the people they are labeling “criminals” may be innocent, yet they are found guilty.
“And by that simple means of labeling, their lives are deemed forfeit… Yet, those who have been judicially adjudged as criminals are now being paraded before the public as the fountain of truth, bolstered by a sex video that these perverted dirty old men are salivating over. Wow! Amazing!” exclaimed De Lima.
She cited Philippine National Police figures that showed that as of Sept. 26, 1,390 drug suspects were killed in police operations. As of Sept. 20, 2,294 more were victims of extrajudicial or vigilante-style killings, she added.
“We could also get insight into the aspects of the human rights situation that cannot be captured by sheer number by reading from the transcript of the exploitation film—esque drama that is being staged at the House of Representatives—where individual’s rights to privacy and security are thrown out the window, right along with women’s rights, which are repeatedly raped, strangled and mangled to death, and abandoned like a piece of meat by certain members of the House of Representatives who are unapologetically insensitive, uncaring and ignorant of women’s issues, including the real problem of slut shaming,” she said.
However, although most exploitation films usually use graphic sex, violence and extreme language to substitute for real plot and thought-provoking ideas, De Lima said, “the kangaroo proceedings in the House of Representatives is much more nefarious and devious.”
“It doesn’t seek to hide the absence of a plot, but the existence of a truly disturbing one: the lengths that a narcissist with ironic messianic delusions will go through in order to hide the fact that thousands of people have died—and more are dying every day, many under suspicious and, some, even plainly murderous circumstances—just to achieve a very narrow end,” she said.
“The truth of the matter is, we are either being run by wannabe, amateur utilitarians, or amoral persons. I honestly can’t decide which is worse,” she said.
On Friday, De Lima said she had expected former Bureau of Corrections chief Franklin Bucayu to defend her in his testimony during the congressional hearing on the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison.
De Lima’s remark came after Bucayo said she had visited the quarters of NBP inmate Jaybee Sebastian, who has been tagged as De Lima’s favored inmate.
She said he had probably been pressured into saying things against her.
“Maybe that was one of the things fed to him to say… Personally, it’s not in the character of Director Bucayo to do such a thing,” De Lima said.
“I would have expected more from Director Bucayo in terms of defending me, in terms of disproving the lies that were made up by previous witnesses. Maybe he was tipped that he should say something negative against me,” she added.
De Lima admitted that she did visit Sebastian with other NBP officials once or twice but never by herself.
She also denied accepting money or that she even knew convict and ex-cop Engelberto Durano, who claimed that he was ordered by another convict, Jeffrey Diaz alias “Jaguar,” to deliver some P1.5 million in drug money to her.
Durano claimed that Jaguar worked with De Lima’s then driver-bodyguard Ronnie Dayan. With PNA
