‘US Senate resolution a watershed in Philippines human rights’

MANILA, Philippines — The approval of a US Senate resolution seeking sanctions against officials who had played a role in her detention and abetted extrajudicial killings was a “watershed” in Philippine human rights history, Sen. Leila de Lima said yesterday.

De Lima issued the statement after the US Senate passed Resolution 142, authored by Sen. Edward Markey (Massachusetts), which called on US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions against Philippine officials pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act allows the US government to impose sanctions on foreign government officials implicated in human rights abuses in any part of the world.

“The approval, in unanimous consent, of US Senate Resolution 142 is a watershed in the history of keeping democracy and human rights accountability in the country and the role the US play in ensuring it,” De Lima said in a statement from Camp Crame where she has been detained since February 2017.

“The case against me, apart from being fake and invented, has no internal legal consistency or integrity altogether and has been fueled by tyrannical powers and alignment of greed and political opportunism in Philippine politics. That is clear since Day 1,” she said.

She thanked the “granite resolve” of Markey, and US Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Chris Coons, Richard Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Marco Rubio and the rest of the US Senate “for standing strong and firm for the larger truths behind my persecution.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Gordon said the US Senate should hire a good lawyer for De Lima if it wants proceedings on her case to speed up.

“All I know is that our courts are functioning. If the Senate of the United States really wants to help De Lima, then they can hire a good Filipino lawyer and the courts can move faster,” Gordon said.

He said it is in the country’s interest that De Lima’s case be resolved as soon as possible.