Nathalia Liezle S.

Roberto MAN 003

BSA | AC32FB2 Mrs. Mariel Jagurin

A Privilege Speech

Mr. Edwin Lacierda,

I am deeply touched with how you uphold your respect to women, regarding your letter to Ms. Leila
De Lima. I go along with you when you said, Maybe this is the new ethics that pervades our land. This
may be the new ethics, but dont you think you are omitting the possible benefits that it could give to our
nation? As I review your letter, I noticed how Ms. De Limas gender mattered on how you responded on this
controversial argument. Change has come, yes; but not where women are insulted or threatened, but
where women are treated with what they deserve, the same way as to men. Change has come where
gender equality has begun.

Im not concluding that what President Duterte did to Ms. Leila De Lima was acceptable. Im also
not saying that Leila is not guilty. Im just saying witnesses showed themselves; why not investigate this in
lieu of our law? Isnt better if we comply with due process? At least at the end of the investigation, well be
able to know who are the one talking nonsense and the one telling the truth. Then the Supreme Court can
lay down their verdict.

I admit President Duterte commits mistakes as well. If we were to scrutinize the performance of our
President ever since he took office on June 30, many celebrities are using drugs but the arrests are not
violent. The poor ones ended in violent deaths. Government officials have a chance to defend themselves.
There's a lot of question to what is happening now. He may have produced achievements over his war on
drugs campaign, but he has also showed failure on his means to attain the said success.

On Leila De Limas video message, she said, The filing of criminal cases against me is only the
fulfillment of Mr. Dutertes fixation for revenge against me, because of my investigation of the Davao Death
Squad when I was the chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, referring to the 2009 probe of
extrajudicial killings in Davao during Mr. Dutertes term as mayor of the city. Clearly, Ms. De Lima is
concluding that President Dutertes revenge is one of the reasons why she has to undergo this persecution.
For me, regardless if considered revenge or not, she should bear with due process of law if she acted
contrary to our law, provided it was judicially proven.
 Some people believe in karma and some dont; personally I do. And if I were to consider my belief,
I can recall last November 2011, when De Lima barred the Arroyos from leaving the country for the former
president to seek medical treatment. The couple was under preliminary investigation for their alleged
involvement in the reported cheating in the 2007 senatorial polls. That might be a reason for De Limas
karma. Again, this is just to consider my own belief. Im neither opposing nor supporting the Regional Trial
Courts action towards De Lima. But if proven that shes guilty, she should be punished; regardless of her
gender. Theres no room for gender sensitivity in this issue, especially when in opposition to our law.

Before I end my articulation, I would like to leave a simple yet meaningful passage from our very
own President, Human rights must work to uplift human dignity. Human rights cant be used to use as an
excuse to destroy the country. More so, Id like to live with Feminism must work to uplift gender sensitivity.
Feminism cant be used as an excuse to obliterate the law.

Its been a pleasure expressing my thoughts with regards to this argument. Thank you and have a
nice day!
De Lima: I wont be silenced

PROOF OF LIFE Mug shot of Sen. Leila de Lima taken during her booking at police headquarters in Camp
Crame after her arrest on drug charges on Friday. FROM POLICE SOURCES

Sen. Leila de Lima did not go quietly.

If they think they can silence me, if they think I will no longer fight the fight Ive been waging, especially for the
truth, and the persecution of the Duterte regime, it is my honor to be jailed for what I am fighting for. Please
just pray for me, she told reporters as she was about to be handed over by Senate security to policemen who
had waited all night with a warrant to arrest her on drug charges.

These are all lies. The truth will come out and I will achieve justice. I am innocent, she said.

Fight, Leila! relatives, friends and supporters shouted as De Lima made her way down from her fifth-floor
office in the Senate building, and was put aboard a police coaster that would take her to Philippine National
Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, for booking.

It was just past 8 a.m. on Friday, two hours earlier than the handover time agreed between the Senate
security and officers from the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, mother unit of the policemen
who shot and killed execution-style a mayor detained on drug charges in a Leyte jail last Nov. 5.

Drug charges

De Lima, 57, was arrested Friday on drug trafficking charges she insisted were manufactured to silence her
opposition to President Dutertes brutal war on drugs, which has claimed the lives of more than 7,600 people
in eight months.

Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204, with whom De Lima, as justice
secretary, tussled over a drug case in 2011, ordered the senators arrest on Thursday.

Also ordered arrested on the same warrant were De Limas former driver, bodyguard and alleged bagman,
Ronnie Dayan, and former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos.
Dayan was arrested in his home in Urbiztondo, Pangasinan province, late Thursday. Ragos had asked for
deferment of his arrest.

An hour after De Limas voluntary surrender, her office released a video message to her supporters and the
nation, which her staff said was filmed on Wednesday in anticipation of her arrest.

Video message

In the video, the senator insists she is innocent of the drug charges.

I have never betrayed and I will never betray the trust of my country and the Filipino people, De Lima says,
accusing the Duterte administration of making an example of me to intimidate, silence and destroy anyone
who dares challenge them, to draw public attention away from the governments abuses and failures, and to
cover up their most murderous war on drugs.

If they think [that] by jailing me, I will turn my back on my principles, they are mistaken. Instead, they have
encouraged me more to pursue truth and justice, she says.

The message contains scathing remarks about Mr. Duterte, whom she calls the mastermind of the filing of
cases against me.

The filing of criminal cases against me is only the fulfillment of Mr. Dutertes fixation for revenge against me,
because of my investigation of the Davao Death Squad when I was the chairwoman of the Commission on
Human Rights, she says, referring to the 2009 probe of extrajudicial killings in Davao during Mr. Dutertes
term as mayor of the city.

She says Mr. Duterte acts on a whim, which she calls impunity, and traces to his time as mayor of Davao,
when he discovered that he could kill without accountability.

Truth is, even though he has killed over 1,000 in Davao and over 7,000 throughout the Philippines with his
death squads and rogue police, he has yet to pay for it under the law, she says.

He will pay soon

But Mr. Duterte may soon pay for his horrible crime against humanity, she says, pointing to the emergence
earlier this week of retired police officer Arturo Lascaas, a confessed hit man for the Davao liquidation team,
who confirmed the existence of the hit squad and claimed the killings in the city were ordered by Mr. Duterte.

Lascaas disclosed his dealings with Mr. Duterte in a news conference in the Senate on Monday, confirming
the testimony in a Senate inquiry last year by another confessed death squad hit man, Edgar Matobato, who
said Mr. Duterte ordered the killings and shot dead a Department of Justice employee himself.

With the revelation of Lascaas, there is no more doubt that our President is a murderer and a sociopathic
serial killer. This is also the reason why we are experiencing all the madness in the government under this
regime that is being led by the No. 1 criminal in the entire Philippines, if not in the whole world, none other
than President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, she says.

De Lima calls on Mr. Duterte to stop the killings and stop harassing her.

Stop this madness, she says.

De Lima will be detained in the PNP Custodial Center, where two former senatorsJinggoy Estrada and
Bong Revilla Jr.are detained while fighting plunder charges over the pork barrel scam.

Malacaang gave assurance that De Lima would be safe in detention.

Sen. Leila de Lima has nothing to fear, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

He said De Lima would be treated with fairness and accorded due process. WITH REPORTS FROM DJ
YAP AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA

Avendao, C. (2017, February 25). De Lima: I wont be silenced,

from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/875166/de-lima-i-wont-be-silenced