(Eagle News)–The Palace on Friday, Sept. 27, slammed a United States Senate panel’s move to amend a bill that aims to ban the entry of Philippine government officials allegedly behind the detention of Senator Leila de Lima.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the move was a “brazen attempt to intrude into our country’s domestic legal processes” and an “insult” to the competence and capacity of Philippine authorities even as he said the Philippines will not do any “repulsive action to reverse” the panel decision, saying it respects the democratic processes in the US.
He said the Philippines ” shall leave it to the international community to ascertain which nation values the rule of law in accordance with the principle of state sovereignty.”
“It is an outright disrespect to our people’s clamor for law and order. It treats our country as an inferior state unqualified to run its own affairs,” he said, noting that such act “makes it appear that this US Senate panel has the monopoly of what is right and just.”
The Palace said all “sensible Filipinos, regardless of their political or social association, should feel affronted and disrespected by this insulting and offensive act.”
In the first place, he said the “subject cases against the detained senator are presently being heard by our local courts.”
De Lima, Panelo reiterated, was not a “prisoner of conscience” and her being a member of the opposition was “irrelevant” to the charges filed against her, which went though due process.
“The Philippines must enforce its laws equally to all its citizens regardless of political and social status. In this part of the world, more particularly under this administration, no one is above the law,” Panelo said.
“We continue to mind our own business, as each nation has enough problems that its government should focus on. We hope that the Senate panel of the United States of America shares the same policy,” he added.
