MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila De Lima should concentrate on her legal defense and stop politicizing a purely legal case, Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Tuesday.
Pimentel was reacting to De Lima’s criticism of the Senate leader, whom she urged to fight for the Senate and his colleagues and not for President Rodrigo Duterte.
“She should concentrate on seeking for her judicial remedies. Stop politicizing a purely legal case,” the Senate president said in a text message to Philstar.com.
In a statement on Tuesday, De Lima said that supporters of Duterte, including his ally Pimentel, should stop avoiding the issue about her continued detention through legalisms and technicalities.
De Lima, who is currently detained at the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame, continues to maintain that the drug-related cases against her are trumped up and a form of retaliation for her intense criticism of the administration’s war on drugs.
The Geneva-based Interparliamentary Union reiterated its call for the release of De Lima from detention last week.
In its March 28 resolution, the IPU expressed “deep concern” on De Lima’s continued pre-trial detention. The senator is yet to be arraigned on drug-related cases against her and has been detained for more than a year.
Pimentel assailed the body for the call and said that its statement showed that it did not understand the Philippine constitution.
The Senate president said that unlike in other countries Filipino lawmakers did not enjoy immunity from arrest and urged the body to keep the Senate out of the legal woes of its members.
Pimentel said that it would be an affront to the Philippines and the country’s sovereignty if the IPU would insist on following its rules.
On Tuesday, Pimentel said that De Lima’s cases were already with the courts, adding that the country’s judicial system is open up to the Supreme Court.
Last year, the IPU also sought De Lima’s release in a report dated October 18 and said that the cases were due to her strong opposition to Duterte’s anti-drugs policy.
The Palace meanwhile maintained that De Lima’s detention was because of her involvement in illegal drugs and not her political beliefs.
Duterte vowed in 2016 to “destroy” De Lima after she called for a Senate probe into deaths attending the government’s war on drugs.
He also disclosed, in a speech, that De Lima was involved in an illicit affair with her former driver, who is also a respondent in her case.