Amid the continuing attacks against her, Sen. Leila M. de Lima yesterday rejected ongoing attempts to portray her as a loose woman and protecting drug convicts.
Speaking before students and faculty members of Miriam College in Quezon City, De Lima admitted she committed mistakes in her personal life but never betrayed the country contrary to what her detractors were trying to persuade the public to believe.
“I am not a slut. I am not a bad and evil woman or a slut they are trying to portray the past few weeks. I have not partied with or slept with any drug convict,” De Lima said.
“Yes, I made mistakes and when I do make mistakes in my personal life, I pick up the pieces and move on. But never did I betray my country,” De Lima added.
De Lima said she is worried that some people might have started to believe the “relentless and vicious” attacks launched against her by no less than the most powerful man in the country today.
Apart from the ongoing House of Representatives probe into her alleged participation in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, De Lima is also facing charges of drug trafficking and accused of receiving drug money from suspected Eastern Visayas drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, son of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. who is currently detained over drug charges.
“I have not benefited from the drug trade. I am not the Queen of the Drug Trade of the Bilibid. I am not the mother of these drug lords. And I am not one who won as a member of the Senate and has turned this country into a narco-state, because in the first place, our country is far from being a narco-state,” she told the students who are mostly psychology, international studies, and mass communication students.
De Lima reiterated she was never a protector of drug lords or policemen who are into the illegal drugs trade.
“Why are we only after the big drug lords and their protectors? Hindi po ako ang protektor! Meron mga ilan diyan na mga tunay na protektor!” she exclaimed during the open forum.
“It’s certainly not me. I have nothing to do with the drug trade except to try to defeat and destroy the ones being operated inside, right inside the National Bilibid Prison!” she said.
“These are lies, lies, lies!” De Lima stressed.
De Lima said she is certain that the President’s intense hate against her was because due to her efforts to pursue investigating the alleged existence of the Davao Death Squad in 2009 at the time she was the Commission on Human Rights chairperson.
“Bakit ginagawa nila ito? Sa sobrang galit sa akin ng Pangulo na ‘yan! Di niya nagustuhan ’yung ginawa ko nung 2009, ako mismo kasama ’yung CHR pumunta kami sa Davao para investigate ng Davao Death Squad,” De Lima said.
“We held a series of public hearings, in one of those hearings pinatawag ho namin siya and pinahiya ko sya dun publicly during that hearing. He has not forgiven, he has not forgotten that,” De Lima said. (HANNAH L. TORREGOZA)