SENATOR Leila De Lima said Sunday she had no illusions about what she was up against because “Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II can exhaust his powers and tap government resources to manufacture false evidence designed to link me to the illegal drug trade.”
She was reacting to the reports the Justice department would issue a subpoena against her in connection with her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary.
“You and I know that he does not have a license to abuse his authority to smear my reputation and slander my integrity,” De Lima said.
“I am up against the government’s deliberate efforts to undermine the accomplishments of the previous administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.”
De Lima said the Duterte administration was singularly motivated to demonize its political opponents instead of confronting the illegal drug menace.
“Sadly, we have a Justice secretary who has a propensity for untruthful and thoughtless statements, for feeding us with lies and deceits, and for resorting to fabrication and forgery,” De Lima said.
“These are what we have seen so far in the last four months since this administration assumed office.”
The more they spoke, De Lima said, the more their lies were exposed.
Since Day One, she said, the Duterte administration had not provided solid evidence to substantiate their accusations other than spewing out malicious conjectures and manufactured lies. “All they are good at is to talk and lambaste me in public,” De Lima said.
“But more people are now seeing through this administration’s real motive, and that is to keep me from talking about their continued disregard to human rights and dignity in the war against drugs.”
Earlier, De Lima said she was no longer surprised when the Duterte administration filed trumped-up charges against her.
She said the filing of charges was fast becoming a bad habit of the current administration like their propensity for manufacturing lies. She said they just would not quit until they had destroyed her.
She said even the testimonial and documentary evidence presented during the House hearing on which the NBI had based its charges had shown nothing but lies and fairy tales linking her to the drug trade.
“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I repeat that I stand by my innocence because I only speak the truth,” De Lima said.
“I shall in the proper time confront my accusers before the proper venue.”