"What are we, part of their commonwealth?”
—Senate President Vicente Sotto III, questioning the perceived meddling of 5 US senators in domestic affairs of the country
Senate President Vicente Sotto III bristled Sunday at a resolution filed by five American senators calling for the release of Senator Leila de Lima and the dropping of charges against Rappler chief executive Maria Ressa.
“What are we, part of their commonwealth?” Sotto said in Filipino, referring to days when the Philippines was a colony of the United States.
Sotto said the US lawmakers didn’t even know how the judiciary works.
“If we file a resolution asking them to release a suspect, will they agree?” he added.
In a six-page resolution, US Senators Marco Rubio, Edward Markey, Richard Durbin, Marsha Blackburn, and Chris Coons asked the Philippine government to remove the restrictions on the personal and work conditions of De Lima and allow her to fully discharge her legislative mandate, especially as chairperson of the committee on social justice.
De Lima is standing trial on drug charges after she was accused of receiving drug money from drug lords inside the New Bilibid Prison to bankroll her senatorial bid in the 2016 elections.
The American senators also urged the government to guarantee freedom of the press by dropping the charges against Ressa.
De Lima thanked five members of the US Senate for their concern over the human rights situation in the Philippines and for calling for her release from illegal detention over trumped-up drug charges.
De Lima, the first prominent prisoner under the Duterte regime, said she greatly appreciates the time they devoted in examining the situation in the country and in calling out the political persecution she is subjected to under the Duterte regime.
The five US senators also pressed the Duterte administration to value press freedom and drop all the charges against Ressa, whose online news service has been critical of the government.
“The Duterte government [c]ontinues to chip away at respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights. This bipartisan resolution condemns their government’s troubling behavior and calls for the release of political prisoners, including Senator de Lima, and journalists who have been imprisoned under bogus charges,” Durbin said.
Markey lamented how “the Duterte government is turning the law against the very voices promoting the rights of the Philippine people” instead of working to hold human rights offenders accountable for their crimes.
De Lima, a former justice secretary, said she continues to see the support she is receiving from different organizations and personalities as a “great source of hope” which drives her to remain steadfast in lending her voice to the causes of human rights.
“Amid the vilification before the whole world by the most powerful official in the Philippines, I stand here fighting, knowing that there are still many out there who believe in me and my causes,” she said.
“Criticisms over the support I’m getting from the international community, much less the US Senate, will never remove the fact that the five senators and other foreign dignitaries before them are speaking in behalf of all the unjustly treated human rights defenders in the Philippines,” she said.
“Instead of bewailing their alleged ‘meddling’, those who negatively reacted to the US Senators’ move should recognize that these foreign entities are simply advancing universal causes of justice, human rights, and democracy,” De Lima added.
The Department of Justice on Tuesday turned down the call of the US senators.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the appeal of American senators was hinged on the wrong premise that the rights of De Lima and Ressa were violated in their criminal indictment before the courts.
“These five US senators have obviously been fed with wrong information,” Guevarra said.
The Justice Secretary pointed out that cases against De Lima and Ressa involve illegal drugs and tax evasion, libel and dummy, respectively, and have nothing to do with human rights of press freedom as claimed by the US senators.
Guevarra said De Lima and Ressa were accorded due process and given opportunities to answer the charges against them during preliminary investigations at the DOJ.
“Senator De Lima and Maria Ressa were charged with violation of Philippine laws, were given ample opportunity to present controverting evidence and were found to be probably guilty of the crimes charged. They are now undergoing a fair trial in a court of law,” he said.
“Human rights and freedom of the press have nothing to do with it, as they continue to relentlessly attack and badmouth the government to this very day. The Philippine press is probably the freest in this part of the world,” he said.
The DOJ chief also rejected the senators’ call for the release of De Lima and Ressa from jail, believing they were misinformed.
“De Lima is not detained in a crowded city jail and Ressa is out on bail. Where should they be released from? Being a senator or journalist does not put them above the law,” he said.