De Lima's dilemma is heavy; she must resign

By Alfredo C. Garvida, Jr.

Contributor

President Duterte's controversial war on illegal drugs is widening, what with the unremitting occurrences of drug-related killings by the police and vigilantes nationwide which have now invited world attention, spearheaded by no less than the United Nations. Understandably, Mr. Duterte is unhappy with the UN censorious attitude toward this domestic problem of the Filipinos that the president has correctly labeled as one that can only be solved by Filipinos under a strong leadership, like the one he is giving now to them. 

This writer has consistently questioned Mr. Duterte's style of dispensing justice on the criminals, centered mostly on his loosely unleashed rhetoric of taking up the cudgels for the police even if they get convicted given his constitutional power to pardon convicts upon his own discretion. In our perception, he has practically given the police the blanket authority to kill people, be they deem them to be criminals or otherwise. It is heartening to note though that lately, Mr. Duterte is defining a clearer parameter for the police to observe before killing their subjects, although it remains to be seen if those who will not comply will be subjected to the same wrath he has against the drug traffickers he so profoundly disdains. 

This writer believes in the president's sincerity to eliminate crime in our country, especially on illegal drug matters. We also believe that this particular presidential crusade will be next to impossible to achieve if everything he must do to pursue it is framed within constitutional constraints. We understand his point, we only wish that he must be equally fierce to deal with policemen who take advantage of his liberality on them.

What the president pursues is justice for the Filipino people. He was correct in saying that the drug problem in the Philippines has now destroyed every fabric of our society. It has destroyed our children's future, the family, and even the true rhythm of rightful governance given the involvement of high ranking government officials.

And there could be no more depressing news for society to swallow than the alleged involvement of the former Justice Secretary, now Senator, Leila De Lima to illegal drugs. This writer would like to reject President Duterte's allegation of her involvement, but she herself has impliedly admitted about her illicit affair with her former driver, who is a married man and being accused now by the president as the grand bridge between the then Secretary of Justice and the most powerful drug lords in the country who, for Christ's sake, were calling their shot from the national penitentiary—where they were being incarcerated—a government institution under the direct line of the Department of Justice. 

We have been very appreciative of Senator De Lima's courage to stand, in the name of justice, as the lone vocal dissenter to President Duterte's kill-kill-kill policy. But sadly now, we feel more than betrayed if her boyfriend's link to these drug bigshots in prison who are yet calling the shots on drug distribution throughout the archipelago, is true. And it could be true, if those high-powered firearms and expensive appliances found inside these drug lords' dormitories at the national penitentiary were our gauge in basing our point. For how could these items get inside their prison cells without the connivance of prison officials and how could these prison officials be so blatant enough to let these huge tangible items get into the prison compound without the blessings of higher authorities from the Department of Justice? 

Justice Secretary De Lima, as the nation knows, held several raids on this prison compound to discover these contrabands inside these bigshots' dormitories, but these raids were done at the waning months of President Aquino's term, and her term too as Justice Secretary. She had to do these raids, this writer was informed, because the stench of these drug lords' overly privileged living style inside prison was about to burst open, more than enough to contaminate Mr. Aquino's government and his candidates, especially Mar Roxas, and Ms. De Lima herself. Her boyfriend's link with the drug lords would have been exposed too and the Liberal Party's chances at the polls would have been doomed. 

Former President Benigno Aquino cannot escape responsibility from Ms. De Lima's dilemma now for it would be next to impossible for him not to have known her adulterous affair with her driver while it was ongoing. Just the knowledge of that affair should have caused him to terminate her services as the Justice Secretary for this office is supposed to be epitomizing lawfulness, the end of which is justice. But Aquino did not mind this unlawful relationship his Justice Secretary was being into, in fact he even wanted her to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the most disastrous episode that our history would have had if it had been realized. Why Aquino had to appoint her as Justice Secretary in the first place, given that her adulterous relationship with her driver was already known even when the former President stepped into the presidency must be a mystery to us all. 

We salute Ms. De Lima's tenacity to pursue justice through the rule of law. Given these stunning revelations about her however, if true, she must do the honorable way by resigning her office immediately. There is no reason for her to stick around any further in the august halls of congress to pursue justice, for she herself had compromised it via her adulterous affair with a married man who happened to have had serious links with the drug lords in our country. The lady senator is grossly tainted, she must go.