He has a beef with Sen. Leila M. de Lima but President Duterte won’t stoop so low and release her alleged sex video in public.
The President admitted he knew about De Lima’s incriminating video and but considered its public release as “below the belt.”
“No. 1, ang kritiko naman, sige daldal nang daldal ng human rights, human rights. Pati si Obama. ‘Yun pala may ano siya, may serye. Kita naman niyo lahat ‘yun,” the President said in his remarks before a religious group in Davao City last Wednesday night. “Pero hindi ‘yun akin ha. Masyadong below the belt na ‘yan,” he added.
The President earlier claimed that De Lima had an affair with her married driver, who eventually became her bag man for money collected from drug lords inside the state penitentiary. Duterte criticized De Lima for her “sexcapades” that led her to commit “several serious violations of the law.”
De Lima has strongly denied the drug allegations against her.
Duterte said he understood that De Lima, former Justice Secretary, was just doing her job in protecting and defending human rights.
He reiterated that he was the “favorite whipping boy” of De Lima since she was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and he was mayor of Davao City.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II yesterday dared De Lima to file a case against him if he is indeed fabricating evidence against her in connection with her involvement with illegal drug activities at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
“She could do what she likes as long as it is within the bounds of the law,” said Aguirre. “I have nothing to fear.”
Aguirre stated that he is no puppet compared to his predecessors who allowed themselves to be used by the past administration. (Genalyn D. Kabiling with Jeffrey D. Damicog)