De Lima on Duterte's recent tirade vs her: Incompetent people will always call you names

Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima took a swipe at Mr. Duterte for his recent remarks calling her a "bitch," saying that Duterte is merely using her as another diversionary tactic to cover up for his failure of leadership, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

De Lima, the most prominent political prisoner under the Duterte regime, highlighted the President's incompetence by citing the slow pace of COVID-19 vaccinations and continued killings and human rights abuses in the country.

"Bitch? Kulang-kulang ang bakuna kahit bilyon-bilyon ang inutang, ako pa ang bitch? Sa dami ng namamatay sa COVID at EJK, ako pang pinakulong na nga nya, ang nasa utak pa rin nya?" De Lima said.

"Incompetent people will always call you names. Panlihis na naman ni Duterte sa mga kapalpakan nya," she added

De Lima's statement was published on her Twitter account last March 18.

It may be recalled that Duterte called De Lima the "only bitch" who made the world believe she is a "prisoner of conscience" at a recent joint meeting of the National Task Force-Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict held in Tacloban City.

"May sinasabi pa siyang 'women empowerment' kamakailan lang, siya naman itong sa simula't sapul, laging nagmumura, naninira, nangmamaliit, at walang karespe-respeto sa kakayahan at karapatan ng kababaihan," De Lima stressed.

"Mr. President, 'wag ka nang magkalat ng tsismis tungkol sa akin. Andami pang problema sa pagkalat na naman ng COVID. Trabaho na lang, huwag tsismis. Eyes on the ball lang po," De Lima said in a separate Twitter post.

In the same meeting, Duterte also threw shade at the Europeans for previously bestowing De Lima with award as he called them "ulol" or fools.

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.