Duterte promises proof of De Lima's links to drugs in Bilibid

MANILA, Philippines -- Unfazed by the Senate inquiry on a perceived rise in drug-related killings, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that he is ready to further expose the alleged links of  Sen. Leila de Lima, a Justice undersecretary and a governor in the drug operations at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa.

Duterte said he is ready to drop the bombshell within the week following de Lima’s vehement denials that she and her former driver, Ronnie Palisoc  Dayan, were involved in any drug protection racket while she was at the helm of the Justice department during the Aquino administration.

“I will show to you maybe this week the matrix of the Muntinlupa connection. It will show his role there,” Duterte said, asking the media to just wait further for his announcement.

He said that De Lima is the highest-ranking official in the drug operations inside the Bilibid.

“There is also a governor. You know, he is my friend and I cannot believe it, but he is there. There is a governor and an undersecretary,” Duterte said.  He confirmed that the undersecretary alleged involved is Francisco Baraan.

Duterte said he has directed the proper agencies to further validate the matrix before he will make any formal statements – following his series of exposes in the alleged involvement of local officials, some police generals and other big personalities in the alarming drug situation in the country.

As this developed, Duterte said he has not kept abreast with the hearings led by de Lima at the Senate regarding the summary executions.

“No, I do not. I don’t watch TV actually, except for the news…,” he said when asked if he has been monitoring the Senate inquiries, which started Monday.

He said he does not want to know the developments in the Senate hearings because he does not want to meddle in the Senate's work.

“Why what’s happening there?,” he asked.  He also laughed off insinuations that there seems to be a pattern that his anti-drug campaign can be classified as “crimes against humanity.”