In a speech at the Philippine National Police anniversary at Camp Crame on Wednesday, President Rodrigo Duterte linked a female senator to the drug menace, saying she funded the construction of her lover’s house with collections from illegal drugs in Muntinlupa—where the National Bilibid Prison, and supposedly powerful convicted drug lords, are.
Later in the day, he named the senator as Leila de Lima, the former Justice secretary and Human Rights commissioner who had called for a congressional investigation into the spate of killings related to the supposed campaign against illegal drugs.
The hearings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week. In fact De Lima, who chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights, has advised the President and the PNP chief, Director General Rolando dela Rosa, to follow the probe.
In her open letter to the two officials, De Lima said that not all the killings were related to the government’s war against illegal drugs.
But the senator, who reacted to President’s words before he actually named her, said it was a case of character assassination that would not deter her from leading next week’s probe on the killings.
It is easy to be distracted by the shaming method in which the President conducts his campaign. The idea of people in high places, posturing themselves as the “conscience of the country” but who turn out to lead double lives is always fodder for gossip and derision.
Shock and awe is a good way to impress upon the public the enormity of the drug problem, and beyond it, the erosion of confidence in our public officials.
A swift trial that considers evidence in a real court, not that of public opinion, is the only logical next step. As a former prosecutor, President must know and inspire this.
