Sen. Leila de Lima scored on Wednesday the House committee report on
the Bilibid drug trade as a “sham conclusion,” citing the irony of
deciding not to recommend her prosecution even while claiming to have
found “sufficient evidence against her.”
“If they believe the evidence is sufficient, they should recommend my
prosecution. So what’s that?” De Lima said, adding that the lack of a
recommendation for prosecution “means there is no evidence.”
“But now they’re saying there is sufficient evidence and not
recommending prosecution. So that is ironic, that is
self-contradictory,” she said.
She said the committee clearly only established “sufficient lies.”
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he was puzzled but he
would not “take issue” with the House justice committee report since the
probe was done in aid of legislation.
“Everybody points to De Lima, it follows the report should have
recommended her prosecution—just like other congressional reports when
there is a finding that a criminal offense was committed,” Aguirre said.
On Tuesday, justice committee chairperson Rep. Reynaldo Umali of
Oriental Mindoro approved its report without identifying De Lima and
other officials of the Department of Justice (DOJ), National Bureau of
Investigation and Bureau of Corrections who were culpable on drug
protection charges.
Minority Leader Danilo Suarez criticized the report which he said
should have recommended the filing of plunder, graft and violations of
the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act against De Lima and her alleged
conspirators.
The DOJ trotted out several witnesses during the marathon hearings of
the justice committee, including 12 high-profile inmates. They accused
De Lima of receiving millions in bribes to finance her campaign in
exchange for allowing the drug lords to continue to operate.
Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano revealed that five of the
inmates—Engelberto Durano, Nonilo Arile, Jaime Patcho, Jojo Baligad, and
Vicente Sy—had pending applications for executive clemency, which might
explain their testimonies against De Lima.
But Aguirre said he was unaware of their applications for executive clemency during the Aquino administration.
“We should not lose sight of the fact that all of them were there to
shed light on why drugs proliferated at Bilibid and who were the
government officials responsible for the proliferation or who profited
from it,” Aguirre said. “That is the core issue here.”
Share It To Your Friends!
