SINGAPORE – Philippines Sen. Leila de Lima, one of the fiercest critics of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, was arrested in Manila on drug-related charges.
De Lima headed a commission investigating extra-judicial killings under the war on drugs, which has left more than 7,000 dead since Duterte took office in June. She surrendered to the Philippine National Police on Friday morning at her Senate office on charges of organizing a drug trafficking operation out of Manila’s notorious New Bilibid Prison while she was justice secretary from 2010 to 2015. She is also accused of using drug money to fund her 2016 senatorial campaign.
In a video statement posted to her Facebook page before her arrest, de Lima accused Duterte of being the mastermind of the charges, which she called manufactured and politically motivated.
“My arrest is an appalling sign of the return of a power-hungry, morally bankrupt and abusive government,” she said.
In a plot she called “revolting,” de Lima noted that the evidence against her is based on the testimony of convicted criminals who received special privileges in prison and were cleared of charges in exchange for testifying. “The Filipino people know your style, Mr. President,” she said. “To put the rule of law in your hands, silence your critics, and destroy those who will go against your caprices.”
Senate supporters of de Lima also spoke out against the arrest. Senators from the Liberal Party, of which de Lima is a member, released a statement condemning the arrest as a political attack.
“The Liberal Party reiterates that it condemns the political persecution of brave administration critic Senator Leila de Lima,” the statement read. They also expressed fear for her safety under police custody, citing the recent high-profile kidnap and murder case of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo at the hands of police.
Human rights groups also blasted the arrest.
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“What we’re seeing is nothing less than a political vendetta in which President Duterte is targeting his highest-profile critic and challenger of his abusive war on drugs,” said Phelim Kine, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
“This is a sad day for the Philippines,” Kine said. “The judiciary has been hijacked to enable Duterte to effectively silence his political opponents.”
Duterte was a vocal critic of de Lima while she was chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which was investigating the surge in killings linked to the war on drugs. In August, as drug allegations began to mount against her, Duterte told reporters he thought de Lima should commit suicide: “If I were de Lima, ladies and gentlemen, I will hang myself,” Duterte said.
I was in the Philippines earlier this month and my friends there say it's as bad as the media reports. It's not just drugs either. A friend who does church work in a slum says that one of his neighbors got arrested for breaking-and-entering (he doesn't know if the charges were legit or not). The police released the guy right after they had booked him. That night, he was killed execution-style in his bed right next to where my friend lives.
Everyone knows someone who has gotten murked now, a lot of them just young guys from shytty homes who struggled with a drug problem. It's like the War on Drugs if utter sociopaths ran it.
Filipino fukkery: presidential candidate wishes he was first in gang rape - Edit: HE WON
Duerte openly admits to going out on murder sprees, his supporters pull a Trump. :francis:
President Duterte of the Philippines says he personally killed people
Rodrigo Duterte Ordered Philippine Killings, Professed Hit Man Testifies
"They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals" Inside Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs
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MAGA.
all it takes is one man...