SENATOR Leila de Lima denied Thursday testimony by a high-ranking police officer that she, along with other former government officials, preempted a raid on the New Bilibid Prison that was aimed at isolating drug lords operating there.
In his testimony Wednesday, deputy chief for operations at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Benjamin Magalong, said De Lima had scrubbed Oplan Cronus so she could protect one of the drug lords there that was raising money for her senatorial campaign.
One day after Magalong’s testimony before the House committee on justice, De Lima said, as she acknowledged that the raid planned by the CIDG and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency was halted, but said these were due to “personnel-related issues.”
She said even before Oplan Cronus was halted, the Justice Department already had a separate raid planned. Then Bureau of Corrections chief Franklin Bucayu wanted their own operation, and wanted the Justice Department and agents from the National Bureau of Investigation to lead the raid.
She personally supervised the raid, De Lima added.
At the same time, the former Justice secretary said she was contemplating the filing of charges against her detractors for violating her safety and privacy.
On Tuesday, a witness testifying before the House revealed De Lima’s personal contact information and her address, putting her in jeopardy, she said. Since then, she has been bombarded with hateful and threatening messages, she said, and has had to temporarily leave her house for safety reasons.
“I’m a subject of persecution and I am no longer safe. I don’t feel safe. The truth is I’m not safe!” De Lima said.
“Can I rely on regular authorities in government? Can I rely now on the PNP for my security? Can I rely now on the NBI for my security? I’m referring to them as institutions. Can I rely on the AFP as an institution? You probably know the answer to that,” she said.
De Lima read and showed the media some of the messages she had received. Most of them were obscene.
She dismissed suggestions that she resign, but refused to speak further on the accusations about her, saying this might just infuriate “them” more—referring to her detractors.
She also revealed that Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, who has been charged in connection with illegal drugs, is being pressured by some groups to speak against her.
She showed the media two text messages from Marcelino, which she said was forwarded to her by their common friend.
The first message, which De Lima said was sent July 19, read:
“Mistah, good PM. Mistah, I just want to thank you for all of your help and efforts for me during my time in jail. I can never thank you enough, mistah. I can’t move freely or go out right now because a lot of people are out to butcher me. I can’t go to Senator LD either, because they are making up fabricated stories about us. There are also some groups who are trying to convince me to speak against her. But rest assured that I will not be used by them, mistah, not only because I really appreciate it and forever indebted sa inyo ni ma’am (to you and ma’am), but because the people deserve no less than the truth and justice. With my little knowledge and brief encounter with her, I never doubted whatsoever her integrity, mistah. I also want to thank her personally, when everything settles down. Take care always and thank you very much again, mistah.”
A second message from Marcelino, this one on Sept. 5, read:
“Mistah, pressures against me are mounting, and they would even reopen my case. But rest assured that I will never give in to them, mistah. Please tell Senator L to keep faith and be strong.”
According to De Lima, she had received clearance from both the common acquaintance and Marcelino to disclose these messages.
At the same time, De Lima said the drug lord Jaybee Sebastian, whom other inmates said had collected millions of pesos in drug money for her senatorial campaign, was really a government informant.
“The reason why I’m saying he’s an asset is to dispel the wrong speculations, insinuations, that the reason why he was not included in the Bilibid 19 is because he is favored, protected, and especially the insinuations that he collected money for me,” De Lima said.
“The reason why he was not immediately transferred was because he was working with us. He was working with us by sharing information with us,” she added.
Earlier, other convicts testified that De Lima frequented the NBP to meet with Sebastian, and that he was not transferred like the other drug lords were, when the NBI raided the national penitentiary, giving him a monopoly on the illegal drug trade there.
But De Lima insisted Sebastian was separated from the other high-profile inmates because some members of the Bilibid 19 began to suspect that Sebastian was a government asset.
“The information came from him and the Bilibid 19 probably knew this. They might have killed him,” she said.
But she said she pushed to have Sebastian included with the rest of the drug lords who were transferred to Building 14, even though this might put him at risk.
De Lima also denied testimony that she visited Sebastian in his hut in the NBP and met with him for three hours.
“That’s completely false” and very malicious,” she said. De Lima said she will answer all the accusations against her in time.
“Until I hear all of what the witnesses can say, I don’t want to be saying things on specific allegations being mouthed by these witnesses,” she said.
Since all the other witnesses in the House probe had tagged Sebastian, De Lima said she would not be surprised if Sebastian would also testify against her.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said the Justice Department tried to get Sebastian to testify before the hearing, but the convict wanted to limit his testimony to allegations of corruption in the food supply at the NBP.
De Lima also defended former President Benigno Aquino III, from Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s insinuation that he was linked to illegal drugs in the national penitentiary.
Aguirre had earlier said a “yellow executive” higher than the former Justice secretary benefitted from the drug payoffs in the NBP.
While he mentioned no names, De Lima said he was clearly referring to Aquino.
“I ask you, who else was a yellow official higher than me? When I was secretary of Justice, I was alter ego of the President and therefore the only one higher than me is President PNoy himself,” said De Lima.
The accusation, she said, was “highly outrageous.”
The senator slammed her critics from the Duterte administration for resorting to fabricated stories to destroy her.
“I don’t know what’s happening that makes them so confident of themselves. They’re becoming so reckless, resorting to tall tales. It’s getting to be laughable,” she said.
She said “operators” convinced the witnesses to gang up on her to pin her down and implicate her in the drug operations in the NBP.
She said the witnesses testifying against her only have two motivations–either they have an axe to grind or have skeletons in the closet.
De Lima said she got “A1 information” that after she won the senatorial elections in May, some people were already visiting the NBP to look for witnesses who would be willing to implicate her in illegal drugs.