By Mario Casayuran
Detained opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has defended the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco in the United States for passing a resolution condemning the Philippine government’s bloody war on drugs and her unjust detention.
“Unlike other foreign leaders, President Duterte and his officials are still under a ‘false and blind belief’ that there is nothing wrong with the state policy of murdering thousands to solve the drug menace in the country,” de Lima said.
Senator Leila de Lima (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco / MANILA BULLETIN)
Last April 23, the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco unanimously approved a resolution supporting House Resolution No. 233 authored by Rep. Jackie Spier, condemning the Duterte administration “for its role in state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings by police and for its continued detention of Senator Leila M. de Lima.”
The Board also expressed support for US Senate Resolution No. 142 authored by Sen. Edward Markey denouncing the ongoing human rights abuses in the country, including the persecution of human rights defenders and detention of political prisoners.
In the recent resolution, the supervisors called for a congressional hearing on how American financial aids are being used to finance Duterte’s murderous war on drugs and urged the US government to “cut aid to the Duterte regime.”
Last March 28, Malacañang lashed at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, calling the resolution “a toxic and unacceptable intrusion to our legal processes and an outrageous interference with our country’s sovereignty.”
De Lima said the government should not take offense but should address China’s incursions into the Philippine territory and protect the country from the real foreign aggressor that is China.
“What kind of government do we have that it takes offense from the concern and care of others for the lives and human rights of Filipinos?’’ she asked.
According to de Lima, more and more international representatives and organizations are speaking out against the worsening human rights abuses in the country because several parliamentarians, notably from Liberal International, have already met with the victims of Duterte’s drug war.
“And like a song sung across oceans, one international body after another started voicing out their concerns about the senseless killings,’’ she added.
While the Duterte administration could continue lying and offering flimsy excuses for their wrongdoings, de Lima maintained that they “can never run far away from the fangs of justice.