De Lima dangerously becoming a loose cannon

By Al S. Mendoza

 

LEILA de Lima went ballistic again.

Her target?

Who else but President Duterte?

Strangely, though, the President ignored De Lima.

Not even a whimper from the chief Palace occupant.

Result: The story that was De Lima’s outrage was thoroughly eclipsed by Mr. Duterte’s deafening silence.

Spokesman Ernesto Abellera provided the best description for De Lima’s outburst:  “Colorful language.”

De Lima calling the President a killer is colorful language?

De Lima calling the President a sociopathic serial killer is colorful language?

De Lima calling the President the No. 1 killer in the world is colorful language?

Vitaliano Aguirre II sees another angle to this latest De Lima drama: De Lima could be charged with inciting sedition.

Aguirre, who succeeded De Lima as Justice Secretary upon Mr. Duterte’s assumption of power, cites De Lima’s statement calling on the people to rise against the President as seditious.

In Tagalog, De Lima called Mr. Duterte as “mamamatay tao.”  In English: “Mr. Duterte is a killer.”

That’s no laughing matter.

Definitely, De Lima’s defense would be that democracy allows for freedom of speech?

But, hey, the way De Lima delivered her piece, she appeared so insanely sure that Mr. Duterte is a killer.

Despite presenting no evidence whatsoever.

I have yet to hear of anyone, Filipino or otherwise, publicly accusing a sitting Philippine President of being a killer.

It becomes bizarre all the more when the accuser is someone holding one of the country’s highest public positions—a Senate seat.

Not to mention De Lima was the former head of the Human Rights Commission (GMA appointee) before getting named Justice Secretary by then President PNoy.

Just recently, De Lima has admitted maintaining an illicit affair with her driver when she was Justice Secretary.

Illicit because even though she is legally separated with her hubby, her paramour has a live marriage when they were lovers for seven or so years.

While being the Justice Secretary, De Lima was alleged to have engaged in illegal drug trade, the proceeds of which had supposedly been used to finance her senatorial bid.

She snatched the 12th and final Senate slot in the May polls, nosing out former Metro Manila Development Authority chief Francis Tolentino.

If De Lima would go on acting that way—not just harshly heaping aspersions on the President but also lacing her tirades with, yes, seemingly sedition-laden statements—I’d say she has quickly transformed from a hopeless wreck to a loose cannon.

With her ghastly act of berating the President using words worthy of gutter language, she has lost every fiber of moral ascendancy befitting a senator.

But because she is my comadre (I was paired with her in a wedding ceremony), I pray to Dear God to show the light on De Lima, now and forever.  Amen.

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