De Lima to Alvarez: Take a look in the mirror

(Photo: De Lima’s official Facebook page)

MANILA—Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday hit back at House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for calling her a “serial liar” amid allegations that she received PHP8-million drug money from suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.

“Bago pa man magsalita si Ginoong Alvarez, subukan muna niyang humarap sa salamin, at makikita niya kung sino ang bastos, walang galang sa kababaihan, at tunay na sinungaling (Before Mr. Alvarez starts speaking, he should try taking a look in the mirror to see who is rude, who has no respect for women and who is a liar),” De Lima said.

Alvarez, in a television program interview on Wednesday night, said he was amazed by how De Lima could lie despite several testimonies that implicate her as protector of drugs in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

Espinosa and former driver-bodyguard and alleged drug money bagman Ronnie Dayan, in separate hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives, claimed that De Lima accepted millions of pesos to use for her campaign fund in the May 2016 elections.

De Lima, however, said that Alvarez’s remarks showed how “narrow-minded” he was and cited how he once allowed the proposal of presenting the alleged intimate videos of her before congressional hearings on the alleged illegal drug trade inside the penitentiary.

“Kung ganito po kabastos mag-isip si Ginoong Alvarez, hindi na talaga ako magtataka sa iba pang pambababoy at paninirang-puri na ibabato niya laban sa akin,” she added.

(“If this is how dirty Mr. Alvarez thinks, I no longer wonder what form of humiliation he would throw against me,” she added.)

During Wednesday’s Senate hearing where Espinosa testified against De Lima, the neophyte senator did not ask him any question, stressing it was not the proper venue and that she did not want to lay all her cards on the table.