Mamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima says that the United States' (US) attack on Venezuela "reflects poorly" on the Philippines by way of its close association with Washington.

Moreover, De Lima, a former Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary says the US action under President Donald Trump "normalizes" acts of aggression from China, Russia, and Israel that common Filipinos have criticized.

"It is most regrettable that the [US] under Trump has once again regressed into an aggressor state not unlike China, Russia, and Israel. The attack on Venezuela and abduction of President [Nicolas] Maduro undermines the rules-based international order, thus setting a terrible precedent of heightened aggression by superpowers," she said in a statement Sunday, Jan. 4.

"It normalizes Russia’s invasion and continued war on Ukraine, China’s expansionist aggression in the South and East China Seas, and Israel’s genocide on the Palestinian people. It throws the global order back to a barbaric 'might makes right' regime, discarding all the progress achieved by the United Nations 80 years after the end of World War II," De Lima, a deputy minority leader, said.

"As a US ally, this leaves the Philippines with a compromised moral ascendancy in protesting, condemning, opposing, and fighting China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). This is due to the fact that our major ally against Chinese aggression uses that same aggression against a smaller neighbor like what the Philippines is to China," she noted.

"This reflects poorly on us as well, regardless of our own faithful adherence to international law, simply because the US is our ally," De Lima pointed out.

She further said that the attack on Venezuela was a "reality check" on the Philippines' reliance on the US for moral leadership in the world stage and as an ally for regional security and a rules-based international order.

"I therefore call on Congress to conduct high-level consultations with our national defense, intelligence, security, and foreign affairs communities to draw up a comprehensive and strategic response, in terms of executive policies supported by legislation, to the impact of superpower aggression on our own precarious situation in the [WPS]," De Lima said.

The lady solon is part of the so-called WPS bloc in the House of Representatives and has been very vocal against Beijing's intrusions in Philippine maritime territory.