Leila besieged by threats

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Leila de Lima claims that unknown persons have started harassing her since Tuesday night and that she was unable to go home for fear of her safety after her address and mobile phone number were made public during the illegal drugs inquiry in the House of Representatives.

“I condemn and vehemently protest the sheer indecency and foulness of allowing my cell phone number and home address to be publicly disclosed,” she said.

De Lima said allies of the administration have basically destroyed her right to privacy and security in her communications and in her home.

“I have no adequate words to express my utter dismay about the lack of foresight and/or utter lack of sheer humanity displayed today during what I can only describe as a blatant exercise in harassment and persecution that is the so-called House of Representatives inquiry,” she said.

De Lima said she is now a persecuted person displaced from her home. “Worse, they have turned people into weapons of destruction,” she said.

De Lima has repeatedly pointed to President Duterte as being behind the efforts to harass and pressure her after she launched a Senate inquiry into the spate of drug-related extrajudicial killings that, by her count, now exceeded 3,000 cases.

“They have victimized me over and over again, and just when I thought I could not feel more betrayed, they have once again proven that I have underestimated their audacity and evilness,” she said.

Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia, yesterday accused lawmakers investigating the drug problem in the New Bilibid Prison of endangering the safety and security of De Lima by revealing her home address and mobile phone number on national television.

“Since that disclosure during the hearing, which was broadcast live on national television, De Lima has reported that she’s been besieged by hundreds of threatening phone calls and messages,” he said.

“We are aghast that the lawmakers presiding over the hearing, who are political allies of President Duterte, conducted it in a way that grossly violates the privacy and the rights of a sitting legislator. Her fellow legislators in both houses of Congress should denounce this attempt to silence and intimidate her.” 

Kine said since De Lima launched in August a Senate probe into the surge in killings linked to President Duterte’s “war on drugs,” she has been the target of the administration’s relentless campaign of harassment, intimidation and vilification that appears designed to politically destroy her. – With Michael Punongbayan