(Eagle News) — The Palace on Friday, Jan. 10, slammed what it said was the “incorrigible nonsense” of a United States senator who reiterated his call for the release of Senator Leila de Lima.
In a press conference, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said US Senator Richard Durbin’s demand for the release of the Filipino senator, who is facing drug-related charges, after all, was “a brazen interference and an assault to our sovereignty as it interferes with our judicial process.”
“In addition, his remarks not only violate the principle of subjudice but it also assails the ongoing proceedings thereby trampling upon the rights of the People of the Philippines,” Panelo said.
Panelo said Durbin’s description of President Rodrigo Duterte as “autocratic, by reason of a Philippine senator’s detention, which was pursuant to – and in obedience of – Philippine substantive and procedural law,” was also “offensive and a shameful display of illiteracy in the science of governance.”
“This will be the last time that the Office of the President will address any other intrusive and incorrigible nonsense from Senator Durbin,” Panelo said.
Durbin was among a few US senators who pushed for the release of De Lima, a move the Palace has slammed as interference in Philippine sovereignty.
Those senators were subsequently banned from the Philippines.
This week, the US Senate passed a resolution urging US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Philippine government officials allegedly behind her incarceration.
