{"id":240687,"date":"2019-12-23T03:36:18","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T08:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=240687"},"modified":"2019-12-23T03:36:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T08:36:18","slug":"trump-oks-provision-banning-de-limas-accusers-to-enter-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/23\/trump-oks-provision-banning-de-limas-accusers-to-enter-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump oks provision banning De Lima\u2019s accusers to enter US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Trump\u2019s signature on the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill 2020 which is part of the US government\u2019s $1.4-trillion budget., authorizes the US secretary of State, currently Mike Pompeo, to prohibit foreign officials to whom he has \u201ccredible information [to] have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment\u201d of De Lima \u201cwho was arrested in the Philippines in 2017.\u201d (File Photo:<\/a> Senate of the Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>United States (US) President Donald Trump just signed into law the US 2020 budget that includes an amendment that bans the entry of those involved in putting Senator Leila de Lima behind bars, on Friday, December 20.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s signature on the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill 2020 which is part of the US government\u2019s $1.4-trillion budget., authorizes the US secretary of State, currently Mike Pompeo, to prohibit foreign officials to whom he has \u201ccredible information [to] have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment\u201d of De Lima \u201cwho was arrested in the Philippines in 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, the said provision in the section labelled \u201cProhibition on Entry\u201d states that the US Secretary of State \u201cshall apply subsection (c).\u201d Subsection (c) is the US law, Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act that sanctions those the US deems to be human rights offenders.<\/p>\n

While the Philippines was specifically mentioned, the ban also applies to the Egyptian government officials to \u201cwrongfully\u201d detained an American citizen, as well as to the government officials of Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia who jailed locally-employed staff of a US diplomatic mission or a US citizen or national.<\/p>\n

Earlier, De Lima cited an initial list of persons whom she said were involved in her arrest and detention. The list is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • President Rodrigo Roa Duterte<\/li>\n
  • Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo<\/li>\n
  • Former Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) official Margaux \u201cMocha\u201d Uson<\/li>\n
  • Blogger (For the Motherland) Sass Sasot<\/li>\n
  • Blogger (Thinking Pinoy) RJ Nieto<\/li>\n
  • Former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez<\/li>\n
  • Former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II<\/li>\n
  • Solicitor General Jose Calida<\/li>\n
  • Public Attorneys Office (PAO) chief Persida Acosta<\/li>\n
  • Sandra Cam<\/li>\n
  • Dante Jimenez<\/li>\n
  • Rey Umali<\/li>\n
  • Rudy Fari\u00f1as<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    It can be recalled that in late September, Panelo was unfazed by the US entry ban.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI\u2019ve been there several times over,\u201d he told the reporters, further explaining that the US is not the only country \u201cthat you can go to and enjoy the sights and the sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Panelo added, \u201cI cannot understand where this Senator Leahy and another one, Senator Durbin, are coming from. The problem with them is that they listen to the critics of the administration and believe what they hear or what they receive as info hook, line, and sinker.\u201d<\/p>\n

    It was US Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy who filed the amendment that was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n

    Leahy\u2019s camp responded to Panelo\u2019s statement through an e-mail sent to ABS-CBN News in October.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAs Mr. Panelo knows, human rights are universal, and each of us has a responsibility to defend them. Rather than respond to his personal attacks, we would refer him to the Trump administration\u2019s latest human rights report of the US State Department on the Philippines,\u201d Leahy\u2019s spokesperson David Carle wrote.<\/p>\n

    Carle further said that De Lima\u2019s case \u201cattracted widespread domestic and international attention, with many observers denouncing the charges as politically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

    “If the evidence is as strong as Mr. Panelo claims, then the government should promptly produce it in a fair, public trial, as due process requires, so Senator De Lima can defend herself,” Carle added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    United States (US) President Donald Trump just signed into law the US 2020 budget that includes an amendment that bans …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":152776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240687","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=240687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240690,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240687\/revisions\/240690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}