MALACAÑANG on Monday scored embattled Senator Leila de Lima for playing the “gender card” against President Rodrigo Duterte, after she filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to prohibit the Chief Executive from securing private details about her personal life.
“Senator Leila de Lima is apparently playing the gender card as a shield against mounting evidence of her ties with high-profile drug lords and the proliferation of [the] drug trade in the [New] Bilibid [Prison],” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.
“By potraying herself as a victim, she seeks to distance herself from the intimate relationships which were also intertwined with drug trafficking while she was [Justice] secretary,” the Palace official added.
Chief Presidential Counsel Salvador Panelo also denied De Lima’s claims that Duterte was harassing her when the President decided to pursue his shame campaign against his top nemesis.
“The petition filed by Senator De Lima has no basis, whether in fact nor in law. The complaint is she’s being harassed; she’s not being harassed,” Panelo said.
“He’s merely responding to his duty under the Constitution to serve and protect the people pursuant to the right of the people to be informed of what is happening in this country,” Panelo said.
On Monday, De Lima petitioned the Supreme Court to order the President and his men from collecting and using information about her private affairs “to degrade her dignity as a human being, a woman and a senator.”
De Lima cited several specific occasions where the President has repeatedly subjected her to crude, personal verbal attacks, which involved the wrongful and unlawful collection and publication of her alleged personal affairs.
The President had earlier implicated De Lima in the illegal drug trade, suggesting that she had an illicit affair with her former driver Ronnie Dayan, who protected the drug lords inside the New Bilibid Prison.
Abella said De Lima’s petition before the Supreme Court was “calculated to generate media noise to drown out the accusations against her.”
Panelo said that De Lima’s complaint would bear no fruit, and reminded her the President is immune from suit.
“Even assuming he is not, the petition has no basis, in fact nor in law,” he said.
In her petition for habeas data, De Lima, through lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, asked the Court to stop President Duterte from collecting and disclosing information about her private life that tend to “malign her and degrade her dignity as human being.”
De Lima’s petition challenges the well-established doctrine of presidential immunity from suits after she named him as respondent to the case.
De Lima, who has been tagged in illegal drugs trade in New Bilibid Prison and subjected to congressional investigation, pleaded for the issuance of a writ of habeas data stopping the President from using government resources in his “personal vendetta” against her.
She also sought an order from the Court to compel Duterte to disclose how he was able to listen to her private conversations, and to delete or destroy any private information about her illegally obtained.
She alleged in her petition that the President is violating her right to privacy in life, liberty and security by using “resources of his powerful office to crucify her as a woman, a human being, and a duly elected senator.”
De Lima alleged that with such actions, Duterte violated Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and R.A. 9710 otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Women.
She told the Court about the “wrongful collection and publication of her alleged private affairs and activities that are outside of the realm of legitimate public concern.”
As proof, she submitted a CD compilation of Duterte’s public personal attacks against her and also an assessment report detailing the psychological effects on her by Duterte’s attacks.
“I stated in my petition the several occasions where he [Duterte] cursed me and uttered words about my womanhood that had nothing to do with his position as President. What he said was too much, very degrading to my person and womanhood, just because of his personal vendetta against me,” De Lima said after filing the petition.
The petition also included “a long list of samples of hate messages” she has received, particularly on social media.
De Lima’s counsel, De La Salle University College of Law dean Jose Manuel Diokno said the actions of the President constitute sexual harassment, psychological violence and slut-shaming against women and are therefore not covered by immunity.
“Immunity cannot be used to block this case. There is a blatant violation of the magna carta for women, code of conduct for public officials,” Diokno said in a press conference.
De Lima said the petition is just “the first of a series of legal offensives” she plans to file against Duterte, in apparent retaliation tfor his attacks on her.
“I am what I am. And what I am is a fighter. Enough is enough,” she said.
The senator was joined by a group of women supporting her cause in filing the petition. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
