De Lima arrested; DILG: No special treatment

CEBU, Philippines - Senator Leila de Lima, an opposition senator and leading critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drug crackdown, was arrested Friday on drug charges but professed her innocence and vowed she would not be intimidated by a leader she called a "serial killer."

De Lima's arrest came a day after the Regional Trial Court in Muntinlupa City issued the warrant for her arrest along with other officials who have been charged by state prosecutors for allegedly receiving bribes from detained drug lords.

De Lima has denied the charges, which she said were part of an attempt by Duterte to muzzle critics of his crackdown, which has left more than 7,000 drug suspects dead. She questioned why the court suddenly issued the arrest order when it was scheduled Friday to hear her petition to void the three non-bailable charges.

"If they think they can silence me, if they think I will no longer fight for my advocacies, especially on the truth on the daily killings and other intimidations of this Duterte regime, it's my honor to be jailed for what I've been fighting for," she said before policemen took her into custody at the Senate.

A police convoy, trailed by media vans, took de Lima to the main police camp, where officers took her photograph and fingerprints before her detention.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella called de Lima's arrest "a major step forward in the administration's anti-drug war."

When de Lima headed the government's Commission on Human Rights, she tried unsuccessfully to have Duterte prosecuted when he was mayor of Davao City for alleged unlawful deaths that occurred during an anti-drug crackdown in the city. No witnesses came forward then to testify against the mayor, human rights officials said.

Duterte expanded the crackdown nationwide after becoming president last June, and de Lima has continued to criticize him after winning a Senate seat last year.

In one of her strongest statements against the president this week, de Lima called Duterte a "sociopathic serial killer" who has not been made to answer for more than 1,000 deaths during his crackdown in Davao City as its mayor and now for the thousands of drug suspects killed in his national fight against illegal drugs.

She urged Duterte's Cabinet members to declare him unfit to serve as president. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II warned that such remarks were seditious, but de Lima replied that Aguirre and Duterte are "the rebels and inciters against a constitutional order that values life and due process above everything else."

Prosecutors allege that de Lima, while she was justice secretary under former President Benigno Aquino III, received bribes from detained drug lords to finance her senatorial campaign, and they say some of the drug lords would testify against her. The bribes were allegedly solicited by her former driver and lover, who was also charged and arrested Thursday in Pangasinan.

Duterte has lashed out at de Lima with foul language, calling her a sex-crazed immoral woman whose election opened "the portals of the national government ... to narco politics."

De Lima said the case against her might be the "wakeup call" the country needs, referring to the absence of a public outcry in the country over the killings in the anti-drug campaign.

De Lima said people were starting to fight back, citing recent accounts by a former militiaman and a retired police officer who acknowledged their roles as assassins in the Davao deaths and Duterte's alleged involvement in the killings.

No special treatment

No special treatment will be accorded to De Lima at Camp Crame, said Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno.

“Respect. We will respect her position as a senator. In the same manner that we respected the positions of Senators Revilla, Estrada, and Enrile,” Sueno said yesterday when he attended the Peace and Order Council (POC) meeting in Iloilo City.

The three senators were detained at the PNP Custodial Center after they were indicted for plunder and for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices before the Sandiganbayan on June 2014.

“I visited their detention facilities and there was no air-con. So, why should we give her one?” Sueno said, while denying that PNP Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has been acting without consulting higher authorities.

Petition

De Lima plans to question the issuance of warrant for her arrest before the Supreme Court, said one of her lawyers, Bonifacio Tacardon.

Tacardon said, however, that he does not know the details of the petition that the legal team plans to file.

"They are raising grave abuse of discretion," he said.

De Lima has questioned the filing of charges against her at a Muntinlupa court, saying her alleged offenses should have been forwarded to the Office of the Ombudsman and that the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court should hear the cases against her.

The Liberal Party has also pointed out that the warrant for her arrest was issued soon after Judge Juanita Guerrero returned from a trip abroad, implying that the warrant was issued before she could study the complaint against de Lima. De Lima has filed a motion to quash the complaint but the hearing for that, originally scheduled for Friday morning, has been postponed at the prosecution's request. — Associated Press, Philstar.com and Jennifer P. Rendon, Correspondent (FREEMAN)