{"id":233347,"date":"2019-10-03T20:58:46","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T00:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233347"},"modified":"2019-10-03T20:58:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T00:58:46","slug":"de-lima-getting-fair-public-trial-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/03\/de-lima-getting-fair-public-trial-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"De Lima getting fair public trial: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Panelo called Leahy \u201cignorant\u201d anew for relying on reports from the critics of President Rodrigo Duterte who claim that drug charges against De Lima were fabricated. (File Photo:<\/a> Leila de Lima\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Detained Senator Leila de Lima is precisely getting a \u201cfair public trial, as due process requires\u201d, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this comment in response to US Senator Patrick Leahy\u2019s call to accord de Lima a fair public trial to allow her to defend herself.<\/p>\n

Panelo called Leahy \u201cignorant\u201d anew for relying on reports from the critics of President Rodrigo Duterte who claim that drug charges against De Lima were fabricated.<\/p>\n

\u201cUS Senator Patrick Leahy simply does not get it. The good senator from Vermont, through his spokesperson David Carle, is showing more ignorance and uttering amusing nonsense on a subject matter based on bogus narratives coming from President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s vocal and noisy critics and detractors,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He insisted that de Lima\u2019s case followed due process since the investigating prosecutor and the judge have found probable cause to pursue charges and issue the warrant of arrest against her.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the sound legal education of Senator Leahy, this representation did not say that the government, or the administration for that matter, has strong evidence. That is for the court to decide,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Senator Leahy’s retort only validates his sheer ignorance on our country’s substantive and procedural rules,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo stressed that it was Leahy who has placed de Lima\u2019s case \u201coutside legal process\u201d through filing an amendment to the 2020 State and Foreign Operations (SFOPs) appropriations bill to include a ban on the entry to the US of Philippine government officials involved in her imprisonment.<\/p>\n

This amendment was approved by the US Senate appropriations committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is Senator Leahy who has been undertaking measures to place the case of Senator de Lima outside our legal process and place it in a hostile environment stacked against the Philippine officials. His actions smack of interference with due process, particularly that of the People of the Philippines, he claims to promote,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

The Palace official, meanwhile, urged Leahy to address his country\u2019s issues rather than meddling into another country\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Leahy cannot be more popish than the Pope. It may be best for him to address the issues his country is facing rather than looking for other concerns which belong to a separate and independent state,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Reliable source<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, criticized Leahy for quoting the US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018: Philippines 2018 Human Rights Report as a basis of the human rights situation in the Philippines without reading it entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfortunate that he chose to dwell on the negative commentaries of the report and failed to look at the entire 44 pages,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Citing the same report on the illegal drug campaign, Panelo said its assessment is respectful of the government\u2019s deeper challenges, e.g. deaths of many law enforcement officers during operations, even as the accountability of those from the same ranks is guaranteed through investigations of \u201cany actions taken outside the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo said the report also underscored that government civilian control over its law enforcers is exercised, citing a statement from the President that while the anti-drug campaign is \u201cfar from over\u201d with its \u201crelentless and chilling\u201d effect, all police who are corrupt are hunted down and jailed.<\/p>\n

The report also recognized the sentencing of three police officials involved in the Kian de los Santos killing, even as it noted that 1,274,148 individuals have surrendered for drug rehabilitation and clearance while the government\u2019s unprecedented war against illegal drugs and criminality has resulted in more detainees.<\/p>\n

Panelo admitted that there may be isolated accounts of abuse on the part of its law enforcers, but assured that the government continues to address them and hold the transgressors accountable.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo insisted that the \u201cmost reliable source of information on the human rights situation in the Philippines\u201d are the Filipino people and not Duterte\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Filipino people, we believe, are the most reliable source of information on the human rights situation in the Philippines. Independent surveys in the country show our countrymen universally believe in the President\u2019s drug war and approve of it as well as satisfied with the result,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Eight out of 10 or 82 percent of Filipinos remained satisfied by the Duterte administration\u2019s war on drugs, results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey fielded from June 22 to 26 showed.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Leahy\u2019s camp urged the government to give de Lima a fair trial pointing out how prosecutors used a variety of legal tactics to delay her arraignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer (de Lima\u2019s) case attracted widespread domestic and international attention with many observers denouncing the charges as politically motivated,\u201d part of the report read.<\/p>\n

De Lima, one of Duterte’s staunchest critics, has been in detention since February 2017 for her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade. However, she denied these charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Detained Senator Leila de Lima is precisely getting a \u201cfair public trial, as due process requires\u201d, Malaca\u00f1ang said on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":90588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233349,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233347\/revisions\/233349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}