The Palace on Monday slammed five American senators for appealing to the government to release detained Senator Leila de Lima and drop the charges against Rappler, sayIng the lawmakers’ resolution was an “outrageous intrusion” into Philippine sovereignty.
READ: De Lima deserves to be jailed—Duterte
Over the weekend, US senators Edward Markey (Massachusetts), Marco Rubio (Florida), Richard Durbin (Illinois), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Chris Coons (Delaware) filed a bipartisan resolution condemning the what they called the human rights violations in the Philippines.
Senator Panfilo Lacson also rejected the US senators’ call.
“We are not their colony. We have a Constitution that provides for three co-equal branches and a judicial system where due process is followed,” Lacson said.
In their six-page resolution, the US senators called on the Duterte administration to “immediately release” De Lima and drop all charges against her.
“Remove the restrictions on her personal and work conditions and allow her to fully discharge her legislative mandate, especially as Chair of the Committee on social justice,” the resolution read.
The senators also urged the government to guarantee freedom of the press by dropping the charges against Rappler chief executive Maria Ressa.
But the Palace rejected their call.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the call was “an outrageous intrusion into our sovereignty.”
“They have no business dictating to us what we are going to do with suspected criminals in this country,” Panelo told reporters.
He said all the issues the senators had raised on Ressa and De Lima had been properly answered and addressed.
The cases against De Lima and Ressa “have passed through administrative and judicial processes before their respective warrants of arrest [were] been issued by courts.”
Panelo said De Lima was accused of illegal drug-related transgressions, and Ressa of tax evasion, of breaching the anti-dummy laws and violation of the cyber libel laws.
“Their association with the political opposition is no exempting circumstance to shield them from criminal prosecution. In this country no one is above the law,” Panelo said.
“The rule of law was followed relative to their cases. The judicial courts have found probable cause, that’s why they’re facing trial now.”
The Palace also shrugged off the US senators’ concerns about the death of drug suspects under Duterte’s war on drugs.
The summary killings were “absolutely not state-initiated or state-sponsored, proof of which is the death of scores of policemen and serious injuries to hundreds of others,” Panelo said.
“Apparently, these senators have been fed with false narratives on these issues, and naively believed hook line and sinker.”
Since February 2018, De Lima has been detained following her criticism of the war on drugs.
Ressa and her news site Rappler are facing libel and tax-related charges. With Macon Ramos-Araneta