THE tit-for-tat between Solicitor General Jose Calida and Senator Leila de Lima rages on even on Christmas Day with the top state lawyer calling the senator a “hypocrite with fetish for power, money and sex.”
Calida, who had earlier called De Lima a “drug diva,” referring to allegations that the senator benefited from the illegal drug trade with the connivance of her former chauffer with whom she had an illicit affair in addition to sexual liaisons with other security aides.
Calida made the statement after De Lima prodded the Cabinet to declare President Rodrigo Duterte as unfit for his post.
“Look who’s talking,” Calida said, adding that it is De Lima who is not fit to serve in public office.
“My unsolicited advice in the spirit of the season is for her to open her closet and get rid of the skeletons of Faustian fetish for power, money and sex before she lets out her invidious intrigues against the President,” Calida said in a text message.
Calida also cited a biblical passage in his advice to De Lima: “You hypocrite. First take out the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5).”
The Solicitor General earlier called De Lima “the state’s public enemy number one, high priestess of hypocrisy and patron saint of narco-politics.” He joined critics of De Lima and personally assisted complainants who filed drug trafficking and graft charges against her in preliminary investigation in the Department of Justice last week, invoking his mandate as “tribune of the people.”
In her response, the senator accused Calida of having an “empty skull” for meddling in the Department of Justice cases that are supposedly already beyond his duties as solicitor general.
Calida again responded and challenged De Lima to a contest on who had a higher grade in criminal law during their respective Bar exams.
“I challenge her to reveal her grade in criminal law during the Bar exams. If her grade is higher than mine then I will resign as solicitor general. But if my grade is higher than hers she should resign as senator of the Philippines,” Calida dared.
Calida, a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila law school, scored 100 percent in the criminal law subject of the 1973 Bar exams. “She is now the diva of drugs in this country,” Calida added. The DoJ on December 21 concluded there was probable cause to charge De Lima over her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in New Bilibid Prison.