De Lima tells Roque: Charges against me are orchestrated lies

FILE: De Lima’s statements came after Roque commented on the senator’s latest recognition from Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine. (Photo: Philippine News Agency)

Detained Senator Leila De Lima on Wednesday affirmed the statements of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque that the charges filed against her were “very serious” not because of the evidence but because it was “non-bailable” and was “anchored on orchestrated lies.”

“Very serious charges? Yes, the charges that the DOJ and its cohorts, upon Duterte’s command, have managed to put together based on perjured or coerced testimonies are ostensibly “very serious” as they are non-bailable,” De Lima said in a statement.

“But these are bogus, invented, fabricated or trumped-up charges. Otherwise put, they are anchored on lies, orchestrated lies. A pure fairy tale of my alleged complicity in the illegal drug trade,” the senator added.

De Lima’s statements came after Roque commented on the senator’s latest recognition from Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine.

For the second consecutive year, the American magazine hailed De Lima as one of the Leading Global Thinkers for 2017 for openly condemning President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.

Sought for comment, Roque said: “What can I say? That’s the decision of the magazine ‘no. So c’est la vie (such is life) ‘no.”

“As far as the Philippine authorities are concerned, she stands charged—very serious charges and there is, in fact, no bail recommended for her provisional liberty. That’s the position of the State,” Roque added.

De Lima also said that the plan to “amend” the Information, originally from Illegal Drug Trading to Conspiracy to Commit Drug Trading, is a “telling proof of the fakery of the charges.”

“Both the DOJ and OSG cannot figure out, as they cannot agree, on what exactly are they accusing me of!” De Lima said.

“The patent infirmity of the original Information was plainly and intensely articulated by some of the dissenting Justices in the recent 9-6 decision of the Supreme Court on my Petition. According to them, the defects or deficiencies of said Information are such that render my arrest and detention void from the very beginning,” she added.

The lady senator also stressed anew her innocence, saying even many “self-confessed drug lords and convicted felons” may persuade or threaten to lie against her.

“The world knows that I’m innocent. Hence, as this grossest injustice is being perpetrated in full view of the entire world, to paraphrase Justice Carpio, institutions around the world felt morally compelled to provide any meaningful succor, in solidarity with my causes. That is the very essence of the various recognitions, all priceless, accorded me, the latest being those from the Liberal International (LI) and Foreign Policy (FP) magazine,” De Lima said.

“As Amnesty International’s motto aptly puts it — “when injustice happens to one person, it matters to us all,” she added.