Philippines: Arrest of Duterte Critic Widens ‘Drug War’

“The truth will come out at the right time”, de Lima told reporters outside the Senate office where she spent the night, moments before law enforcers marshaled her into a waiting van. If approved, there might be staff members and security with De Lima every day.

“We talked this morning”.

“Nagkausap kami kanina. Siyempre, concerned sya sa kaligtasan ni Senator Leila”.

A female lawmaker was on Friday arrested by Philippine police for being involved in drug trading.

Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 ordered arresting officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to return De Lima to the Philippine National Police Custodial Service Unit in Camp Crame as requested by CIDG-NCR chief Senior Supt. Her bagman in this scheme, Duterte said, was her longtime driver and bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, with whom she had enjoyed a romantic relationship.

Tacardon said it is “highly unusual” that the warrant was issued before the court resolved the motion to quash.

“Well, the effect to me is exactly the opposite”.

“This arrest is purely political vendetta and has no place in justice system that upholds the rule of law”.

“I will wait for them, and I will voluntarily surrender, ” she said.

According to The New York Times, De Lima described her arrest as a form of “political persecution”.

“Si Senator Leila hindi tulad ng high-profile accused dahil marami siyang pinakulong, maraming gustong maghiganti, kaya safety ang kanyang concern”, Pangilinan said.

De Lima was allowed to spend the night at her office on Thursday before the scheduled arrest on Friday.

The senator declared it is her honor to be imprisoned for the things she is fighting for.

“Senator De Lima in [the] Philippines”.

De Lima has called the indictments politically motivated and said they were meant to clamp down on her opposition to the president’s deadly drug war.

“We reiterate that an arrest based on trumped-up charges is illegal”, he said citing the “haste” in de Lima’s arrest. “Such is the working of a democracy”, he added. Their voices are expected to fortify organized opposition to use of extrajudicial killings in the drug eradication effort, which has made Duterte a hero at home and generated criticism from human rights advocates overseas. “I have been living the life of a quiet citizen far removed from the political mudslinging Mr. Aguirre apparently enjoys”, Madrigal said.

We can not, and we must not, stand by and let this happen again.

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Abella made the remark in response to the call of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Archbishop Socrates Villegas “for justice, not vengeance” following De Lima’s arrest.

However, De Lima may share the same compound together with the other two former senators she helped put in jail over the controversial pork barrel scam – Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla.