Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Monday scored Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo for his remarks on the Senate minority bloc’s call for her release.
De Lima questioned Panelo’s statement when the latter insisted that the Senate minority bloc, led by Senator Franklin Drilon, should just focus on their duties and on the deliberations on the 2021 national budget “instead of lawyering” for their detained colleague.
“If Panelo himself insists that Malacañang is not interfering in my cases, then why is he the very first official of this administration to speak for the DOJ’s (Department of Justice) Panel of Prosecutors? Siya na ba ang (Is he now the) Secretary of Justice?” De Lima said in a statement.
Drilon and minority senators Risa Hontiveros and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, had earlier renewed their call for De Lima’s release after the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) testified they found no suspicious transactions linking the senator to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
De Lima, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration, has been detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center over drug allegations which she said are merely a reprisal of the government against her for vocally criticizing the President.
The senator, a former DOJ chief, has since repeatedly denied the allegations.
In response to the Senate minority call on Sunday, Panelo said they “should know better” and “know their law.”
“Regardless of the exuberant optimism of the opposition senators, the law must take its course. Let the court perform its duty. And let the rule of law prevail,” Panelo said.
Panelo said it is the court that will give evidentiary weight to the evidence presented before it by the PDEA and the AMLC.