Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Handwritten Note
Dispatch from Crame No. 69

4 / 20 / 17

I'm more than morally convinced that the ongoing human carnage targetting mostly the poor is State-sponsored as incited by a blood-thirsty head of state. Ooops... No, I'm not just more than morally convinced. Without any reservation, I KNOW it's State-sponsored.

Matobato and Lascañas have told us the truth about the DDS. The cash rewards for the assailants and the planting of handguns and drugs on the slain suspect are the very characteristics of the nightmare called DDS. The DDS, in its monstrous form, has simply been transplanted from a local kingdom to the national sphere. It's now a nationwide plague.

The Reuters story, citing sources purporting to be police officers who are in-the-know about the anti-drug operations, is not a fiction. It's real. It's the ugly and disturbing truth of what has become of the PNP.

Something tells me that a significant no. of PNP officers and personnel are as equally shaken and appalled by this tide of lawlessness that has swept their ranks.

I say that they, and they alone, can save their beloved institution from further infamy.

LEILA DE LIMA