The Department of Justice will lodge criminal cases against Senator Leila De Lima for her alleged role in the narcotics trade and related anomalies inside the national penitentiary when she was Justice secretary under ex-President Benigno Aquino III.
As Justice secretary, De Lima had full control and supervision over the national penitentiary. It was during her watch as DoJ chief when the news media exposed that certain favored drug lords detained in the national penitentiary were given extraordinarily special treatment: Consisting of air-conditioned quarters and special toilets, and unlimited access to catered food, liquor, gambling paraphernalia, television sets, mobile telephones, and computers. The drug lords also had with them high-powered firearms, dangerous drugs, and large sums of money.
From all indications, therefore, a lucrative drug trade was taking place inside the national penitentiary.
Under existing rules, prison cells must be subjected to regular inspections to prevent prisoners from keeping drugs, firearms, electronic equipment, and contraband. Obviously, those inspections either never took place, or were sham inspections.
Owing to their bulk and the noise they create when in use, prison officials are bound to notice the presence of air-conditioners anywhere inside the penitentiary. Obviously, prison officials knew of the air-conditioning units used by the drug lords.
Since television sets also make a lot of noise, and considering that catered food is delivered by outsiders, it is impossible for prison officials not to know that the drug lords in their custody had access to television sets and restaurant food.
In sum, the drug trade inside the national penitentiary and the favored treatment afforded to the drug lords detained there could not have taken place without the knowledge and consent of prison officials. The fact that the drug trade existed and the special treatment actually took place are, by themselves, anomalies plain and simple, with prison officials involved in the racket.
As Justice secretary, De Lima was expected to make periodic, and even surprise inspections of the prisons. If De Lima did her job properly, the drug trade and the special treatment of the drug lords would not have escaped her notice. The fact that these anomalies took place is already a clear indication that De Lima neglected her responsibilities as the DoJ chief. It’s either that, or De Lima was well aware of, and was involved in, this scandalous irregularity.
According to Vitaliano Aguirre II, the incumbent Justice secretary, the DoJ has evidence linking De Lima to the drug trade in the national penitentiary, and that De Lima received large sums of money from the detained drug lords for allowing the drug trade to operate there, and for the special treatment the drug lords were getting during their detention.
The DoJ also linked De Lima’s erstwhile driver to the racket, alleging that De Lima got her bribe money from the drug lords through her driver.
When the news media revealed that De Lima had romantic ties with her driver, De Lima was, at first, equivocal on the matter. Later on, De Lima admitted the existence of the affair, but added that the romance was no more. Since then, De Lima had been repeatedly on the defensive.
De Lima denies any involvement in the drug trade inside the national penitentiary, and insists that President Rodrigo Duterte wants to discredit her through the DoJ. She also repeatedly brands the President as a butcher on account of the numerous deaths so far registered in the president’s all-out campaign against illegal drugs.
Despite her protestations against President Duterte, however, De Lima has not given any satisfactory explanation as to how and why the drug trade in the national penitentiary took place under her watch as Justice secretary. If she is innocent as she professes to be, then De Lima must go beyond mere denials.
De Lima has been capitalizing on the hollow tirades hurled by the Liberal Party led by the purported Vice President of the Philippines, Leni Robredo, in an obvious attempt to divert public attention away from her.
A desperate De Lima has also enlisted the help of women’s groups and church leaders who have no love lost for President Duterte. Just last week, De Lima joined a march sponsored by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, a group that is staunchly opposed to the President.
De Lima’s formula is obvious —by styling herself as Duterte’s enemy, she expects the President’s critics to be her strategic allies.
The discredited politicians remaining in the LP have also taken De Lima’s side. That move is obviously politically motivated, and solely designed to protect one of their own. Besides, considering the corruption and incompetence associated with the LP during the administration of ex-President Aquino III, these LP politicians supporting De Lima are hardly paragons of virtue.
Since De Lima appears to be resigned to the prospect of detention, she has resorted to another tactic —she has labeled herself the first “political prisoner” of the Duterte administration.
What hogwash! A political prisoner is a person detained, usually in a military stockade, by a regime, for certain “political offenses” under the penal laws, such as treason, rebellion, sedition, and coup attempts. On the other hand, one who is incarcerated for “non-political” crimes like involvement in the dangerous drugs trade is an ordinary detention prisoner.
Evidently, De Lima has resorted to cheap theatrics by styling herself as a 21st century version of ex-Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who was detained at Fort Bonifacio at the height of the authoritarian government under President Ferdinand Marcos.
De Lima ought to be told that she is not even a close approximation of Ninoy Aquino. Ninoy was incarcerated for his opposition to martial law. Unlike Ninoy, however, De Lima will be facing criminal raps for her alleged role in a lucrative drug trade which took place under her own nose.
Moreover, and unlike De Lima, Ninoy did not have any romantic affair with his driver.
