Press Release
April 13, 2021

De Lima chides Duterte for his recent tirade vs her

Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has chided Mr. Duterte for verbally attacking her anew, following her criticisms of his administration's incompetence and failed pandemic response.

De Lima, the most prominent political prisoner under the Duterte regime, said Duterte should focus on doing his job as a President amid the rising COVID-19 infections and death toll in the country instead of attacking her.

"Mr. President, maawa ka naman sa taumbayan. Namamatay na mga mahal nila sa buhay ako pa rin ang problema mo?" she said.

"Magtrabaho ka na lang Duterte. Kung nagtrabaho ka lang sana hindi tayo umabot sa ganito. Huwag ka na lang puro ngawngaw," she added.

In a pre-recorded briefing last April 12, Duterte released an expletive-laced statement against De Lima as he brought up the trumped-up drug charges against her anew.

Duterte's verbal attack against De Lima came on the heels of her recent statements about Duterte's failure of leadership, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

It may be recalled that recently, De Lima appealed to Senator Bong Go to "stop covering up for your boss and misleading us on his true capacity to lead" after Go released undated photos of Duterte walking and on a bike, and a short clip showing the President jogging.

Likewise, De Lima has recently demanded justice and accountability for the Filipinos who succumbed to COVID-19, saying "we ought to seek justice for all the Filipino lives lost due to this administration's deplorable incompetence, negligence and botched pandemic response."

Prior to this, De Lima also took a swipe at Duterte after he called her a "bitch" saying that he is merely using her as another diversionary tactic to cover up for his failure of leadership.

As the staunchest critic of the Duterte regime, De Lima has been unjustly detained for over four years now based mostly on false testimonies of convicted criminals and other shady characters as a result of her courage in speaking out against the excesses of the government. She was recently acquitted in one of her three trumped-up drug cases, and has consistently and firmly maintained her innocence of all these cases.

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