Duterte’s counsel on De Lima arrest: Law shines triumphantly

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the head of bishops in the predominantly Roman Catholic country, said the senators and others charged should be accorded “their fair day in the court of laws”. Ten people, including three Chinese nationals, were arrested during the raids.

Aguirre said De Lima refused to answer the charges when those were still undergoing preliminary investigation by a panel of prosecutors of the Department of Justice, and instead filed a motion with the Court of Appeals questioning the DOJ’s panel’s authority to conduct the investigation and issue a resolution, and insisted that the Office of the Ombudsman is the proper investigating body.

De Lima has dismissed the charges as false.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella called Ms Lima’s arrest “a major step forward in the administration’s anti-drug war”.

She called on the public to “scrutinize this case religiously”.

“There’s no truth, they’re all lies, the allegations against me, that I allegedly received drug money, allegedly coddled or protected drug suspects – these are all lies and the truth will come out at the right time“, she said.

Ms De Lima has said that the government’s case rests largely on testimonies that inmates were coerced into giving.

Duterte ordered de Lima arrested Thursday in what supporters say is a politically motivated vendetta.

On Tuesday, Ms Lima described Mr Duterte as a “sociopathic serial killer” and urged his cabinet to declare him unfit to rule because he had a “criminal mind”. Read the full text of De Lima’s statement here.

While the senator was being booked in Camp Crame, her security aide brought De Lima a meal bought from a fast-food joint.

Senator Leila De Lima maintains her innocence in the charges filed against her.

In a statement, Robredo said the efforts “to smear” De Lima are a “strong indication that the charges against her arise from a political agenda and are not the result of an independent, unbiased legal process”.

A former justice secretary, de Lima has been vocal in standing up against the anti-illegal drug campaign of the government.

After spending several hours Thursday in her Senate office, where she is immune from arrest, she said she would return home and await her arrest.

De Lima became the subject of probes launched by Duterte’s political allies after the senator initiated a Senate inquiry into alleged state-sanctioned killings in the course of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

National Police Chief Ronald de la Rosa offered to house De Lima at the Camp Crane Custodial Centre, where two other former senators are being held. She could face life imprisonment and a fine if convicted.

The 57-year-old lawyer, who has spent almost a decade trying to link Duterte to death squads that have allegedly killed thousands of people, could be jailed for life if she is found guilty of drug trafficking.

“We are really disappointed by the issuance of the warrant, the court made the decision based on nothing, ” lawyer Alex Padilla said.