(Eagle News)–Senator Leila de Lima on Sunday, Dec. 15, slammed the Palace for criticizing a United States Senate panel passage of a resolution calling for her release.
“Mr. Panelo, my case is a test case for your boss’ attempt to flex his tyrannical ambitions. The whole world knows that. Malacañang, backed up with its troll army, is a veritable mill of massive disinformation campaigns,” she said.
De Lima was referring to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, who issued the statement calling Resolution No. 142 passed by the US Senate foreign relations committee in November a “brazen and heedless affront” to the country’s sovereignty.
“Wala nang naniniwala sa inyo. Kayo-kayo na lang naglolokohan. We refuse to partake of the poison-infused rhetoric that the President regularly spews. Sa inyo na lang. No more!” she said, adding that she believes those who side with truth and justice “can never be hoodwinked into believing that we have a fair justice system and a strong vibrant democracy.”
In slamming the US Senate panel resolution that also called for an end to the alleged harassment of Rappler’s Maria Ressa, Panelo added De Lima and Ressa were facing cases because probable cause had been found for the charges filed against them.
De Lima has been charged in connection with her alleged role in the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary.
Ressa, on the other hand, is facing libel and cyber libel charges over a Rappler story on businessman Wilfredo Keng, which said it was malicious.
“It is an undisguised and outrageous intrusion to a sovereign state. There can be no excuse for the US Senate Committee not to know that the Philippines has long ceased to be a colony of the United States,” Panelo said.
