Press Release
August 11, 2017

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Duterte's latest tirade against her
Dispatch from Crame No 134

Every time a scandal hits his administration, especially if it is connected to him or somebody close to him, Duterte goes on a diversionary tact using his favorite punching bag, me.

Just recently the name of the presidential son, Paolo Duterte, has been mentioned as one of the alleged protectors in the drug smuggling business during the recent Customs scandal, where ? 6.4B worth of shabu was discovered at the warehouse owned by one of the younger Duterte's alleged close Chinese friends, a certain Richard Tan. Already, some quarters are calling the presidential son "the lord of all drug lords", especially in light of the serial elimination of alleged top drug lords by the PNP death squads of his father.

Although a lot has yet to be uncovered and proven before any case is solidly built against Paolo Duterte, the controversy offers a delectable story that the President's drug war is merely paving the way for his son's rise to power in the criminal underworld as the country's number one drug lord and smuggler.

This is the big story that the President wants to disappear.

The other day he has started his diversionary tactics by attacking my person again. Duterte is not satisfied that he has already imprisoned me. He keeps on getting back at me for lack of any accomplishments after more than one year into his term, and in light of scandals involving a member of his family, his first son, who has been well-known all throughout Davao City as the city's smuggling king.

More than just a rumor, this was also attested to by Edgar Matobato in his testimony during the Senate's inquiry into the ongoing extra-judicial killings. Matobato admitted that he was used as a bagman by Paolo and the other top leaders of the DDS in paying off customs officials at the Davao ports in order to smuggle shipments of contraband, most probably including drugs.

This story is being repeated again, although now in a national scale. The suspicious discovery of the shabu shipment and resulting botched-up seizure operation by the Bureau of Customs in Valenzuela City, rendering the whole shipment inadmissible in evidence against Paolo's alleged Chinese businessman friend, sounds strikingly similar to the story narrated by Matobato. The Senate investigation reveals that there is more to this than meets the eye. And more and more there are indications that it involves the presidential son himself.

In response to this, Duterte instead launched an attack on the EU delegation who has paid me a visit, and re-lived his amorous relationship with an imaginary sex video of me, which admittedly he keeps on watching, but this time incomprehensively throwing my own dog into the mix. This much can be decoded from his now familiar Fentanyl-induced rambling style of speaking.

Duterte claims he took a peek at my detention cell in Crame. I never saw him in Crame anywhere near my detention quarters. The only way he can see my detention cell is through a CCTV installed right on top of the small courtyard of my quarters. Apparently, the President has enjoyed secretly watching me through a CCTV monitor so much, just like a neighborhood peeping Tom, that he could not avoid sharing this experience with the world.

Well, the world is not amused, especially not the EU, after he has called them fools merely for paying me a visit, instead of secretly watching me through a CCTV like he did.

Duterte continues to cover up his failures, this time his own son's possible involvement in the smuggling of drugs, and keeps on using his long-running obsession with my supposed immorality as a diversion.

My suggestion to the President is this: Leave my dog alone. You have your own son to watch over and worry about.

News Latest News Feed