(Eagle News) — Liberal partymates of Senator Leila De Lima who are fierce critics of the administration’s anti drug war came to the rescue of the senator, even as she herself is facing a string of drug-related cases.
Vice President Leni Robredo called De Lima, who was arrested on Thursday, a victim of “political harassment.”
She said this began “soon after she launched an investigation into the issue of extrajudicial killings under the present administration. “
“These efforts to smear Senator de Lima are a strong indication that the charges against her arise from a political agenda and are not the result of an independent, unbiased legal process,” she said.
Without giving names, Robredo said “they circumvented due process to fast-track the issuance of the arrest warrant,” this despite what she claimed was the fact that the basis of the case were “contradicting testimonies from criminals.”
“Our history as a nation is marred by instances where government officials use the processes of criminal justice to cow, silence and eliminate critics. We cannot and we must not stand by and let this happen again. We must make sure that our government institutions remain uncorrupted and independent of each other, particularly when it comes to checks and balances in pursuit of accountability,” she said, without directly pointing an accusatory finger at anyone.
She also exhorted the people to “follow this case religiously,” and “fight for the right to speak dissent.”
“..(This) is the foundation of our strength as a free and democratic nation,” she said, noting that those accused of any crime “must have their day in court, and have the right to a fair and unbiased trial.”
Liberal Party president Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, for his part, questioned the issuance of the arrest warrant against De Lima, saying her camp had filed a motion to quash that was “very voluminous.”
“There should have been a litigated hearing. Instead of hearing that, the warrant was issued without a hearing. It is legally doubtful and questionable,” he said.
Pangilinan’s claim, however, contradicted the pronouncement of fellow lawyer Senator Aquilino Pimentel III that there was nothing irregular in the issuance of such.
Pimentel said it was the sole discretion of the judge to issue a warrant of arrest even if there was a pending motion to quash.
This, he said, was for as long as probable cause for such an issuance has been determined,
