MANILA, Philippines Opposition Senator Leila de Lima delivered a privilege

speech on Tuesday, August 2, to decry the do-it- yourself justice that various
quarters have carried under the cover of President Rodrigo Dutertes war
against illegal drugs. (Watch the speech here.)
De Lima also condemned the attempt of some people associated with the
President to spread lies that she coddled drug lords who were detained at the
national penitentiary.
We have to continue opposing the murder of the innocents as well as that of
the suspects. We must call for the accountability of state actors responsible for
this terrifying trend in law enforcement, and the investigation of killings
perpetrated by the vigilante assassins, she said.
In the campaign against criminality, we cannot applaud criminal methods
merely because we are left unaffected. Life has more value than an accusation
written on a piece of cardboard whether you are rich or a scum of the earth.
Needless to say, all lives matter.
De Lima chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which will
jointly investigate with the committee on public order and illegal drugs the
spate of extrajudicial and vigilante killings in August.
To her detractors, the senator said: I cannot stay silent in the face of all these
blatant lies created in the backroom of a media strategy office suite. I will not
fall without a fight.
She called them misguided men who want to paint her as an enemy of the
administration, and use the Presidents war against drugs as their platform to
destroy any elected public official who dares question the methods by which
this war is waged.

De Lima walks out on Cayetanos privilege speech

Published September 19, 2016 4:58pm
By KATHRINA CHARMAINE ALVAREZ , GMA News
Saying she could no longer stand Senator Alan Peter Cayetano's speech
directed at her, Senator Leila De Lima on Monday afternoon walked out of the
Senate session hall.
In a privilege speech, Cayetano said: Senator De Lima, in her desire to destroy
the President, is destroying the integrity and reputation of the Senate.
Worse, damaging the image of our country and people worldwide, Cayetano,
a close ally of Duterte, said. Cayetano was the vice-presidential candidate of
Duterte in the 2016 national elections.
In a brief interview at the Senate hallway, De Lima said she would just deliver
her own privilege speech instead of interpellating Cayetano.
I cannot stand it so Im gonna deliver a privilege speech tomorrow instead of
confronting him," De Lima said.
What is destroying the reputation of this country are the killings. Its not me,
she added. NB, GMA News