MANILA — Former Senator Leila de Lima raised concerns over Sen. Ronald dela Rosa’s intention to spearhead a Senate investigation into the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, which he led as the country’s national police chief.
Dela Rosa emphasized that the Senate would ensure fairness in addressing the allegations raised in separate hearings at the House of Representatives, where a former police official claimed that rewards were given for the deaths of drug suspects under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
However, De Lima strongly disagreed. “Puwede ba yun na ang isang inaakusahan, isang ini-implicate ay siya rin ang magha-handle ng isang hearing, baka nga mag-preside din? Puwede ba yun akusado ka, ta’s magiging judge ka rin?” she questioned.
“There is a basic ethical issue there. Kung iba sana ang mag-preside, puwede. Pero yung sila at magpa-participate sa pagtatanong pa, I don’t think that is proper… Katawa-tawa nga,” De Lima remarked in an interview with TeleRadyo Serbisyo.
Reflecting on her own experience during Senate hearings in 2016, when self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa accused her of accepting drug money, De Lima said she refrained from cross-examining Espinosa because her objectivity could be questioned.
“May self-interest ako na ako mismo yung ini-implicate, siyempre dedepensahan ko at didiinin ko yung nag-iimplicate sa akin. Is that fair?” she added.
Espinosa’s accusations had led to De Lima’s detention for several years, before she was cleared of all drug-related charges. During a House quad committee hearing last Friday, Espinosa revealed that Dela Rosa coerced him to implicate De Lima in the illegal drug trade.
Dela Rosa denied this claim, calling Espinosa a liar, while De Lima hinted at the possibility of filing charges against the senator.
Recently, Dela Rosa denied allegations of a reward system for killing drug suspects, clarifying that police intelligence funds were not used for such payments. Although initially hesitant to lead Senate hearings on the drug war, Dela Rosa said it was necessary given how the House quad committee appeared to take resource speakers’ statements “hook, line, and sinker” as the truth.
“Dito sa committee hearings na gagawin dito sa Senado, then puwede silang magpalabas ng kanilang mga saloobin to give fairness,” Dela Rosa said.
While Dela Rosa mentioned that he hadn’t spoken to Duterte, he believed the former President would be more willing to appear before the Senate than the House. De Lima, however, argued, “Kung maiisipan niya (Duterte) na pumunta sa Senate hearing, dapat pumunta rin siya sa quad comm. Sa House of Representatives, matagal na siyang iniimbitahan.”
De Lima, who was arrested while serving as a senator in 2017, spent over six years in detention before being acquitted of drug charges. She claims the charges were politically motivated payback for her investigation into Duterte’s drug war during her time as head of the Commission on Human Rights, justice minister, and senator.
Official records show that over 6,000 people were killed in Duterte’s anti-drug operations, but the International Criminal Court estimates the toll to be between 12,000 and 30,000.