MANILA – Malacañang said on Friday slammed the intervention of the United States’ (US) Senate committee that approves a resolution urging the Philippine government to immediately release detained Senator Leila de Lima and withdraw cases against Rappler chief Maria Ressa.
This came after the US Senate foreign relations committee has passed Senate Resolution 142, which calls for President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration to allow de Lima to “fully discharge her legislative mandate” and to “drop all charges” against Ressa.
The resolution was approved by US Senators Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Chris Coons (D-Delaware).
In an interview with CNN Philippines, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the US lawmakers are obviously “misled” by “biased” reports of some news outlets critical of the Duterte government.
Panelo said the US senators need not meddle in the cases filed against de Lima and Ressa, lecturing them that the Philippines has a working judicial system.
“Well, that’s the decision of the committee. Apparently, they have been misled by the reports coming from the opposition, as well as media outlets who had been biased against the administration,” the Palace official said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
“What I can’t understand is they adhere not to understand the judicial process of this country. You know, they should know, because the judicial system of that country and ours are almost the same,” he added.
The US Senate Resolution 142 claims de Lima, a Duterte vocal critic who has been sent to jail since February 2017 for drug trafficking, is a “prisoner of conscience, detained solely on account of her political views and the legitimate exercise of her freedom and expression.”
The resolution also calls Ressa’s arrest for cyber libel and tax-related charges as “part of a pattern of weaponizing the rule of law to repress independent media.”
In a separate statement, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar found the US Senate Resolution “highly imprudent.”
“To try to strong-arm the government into freeing Senator de Lima and dropping charges against Maria Ressa is infringing on our country's legal process and system, to which they have no say whatsoever,” he said.
“The cases against the two went through the due process of our courts and we find no room and no right for Senators Markey and Durbin to question the government's actions at all,” Andanar added.
The PCOO chief said while the Duterte government continues its good relations with the US despite the implementation of an independent foreign policy, it sees no point to give attention to an “ostensible move by people who have little knowledge of the real matter at hand.”
“The pattern that we see here is that both have made out their cases before the international media and have lobbied through the US' legislative body because they know that here, there is no merit to their claims,” he said.
Panelo said the US senators, who appeared to be “oblivious,” should study the Philippines’ legal system first before believing hearsay.
“I cannot understand why this committee is oblivious of that process that went through,” he said.
“Pag-aralan nila kung ano ang prosesong dinadaanan natin, para ‘di sila nagkakamali at ‘di sila dapat nakikinig sa mga sabi-sabi, ‘yung mga nababasa nila sa diyaryo, ‘yung mga natatanggap nilang mga liham (They need to study first our process so they would not need to listen to false information they read from newspapers or letters they received),” Panelo added. (PNA)
