De Lima says Duterte ‘not serious’ in race

CEBU, Philippines - Senatorial candidate Leila De Lima believed the actions publicly displayed by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on live television last Friday showed he may not be serious in his bid for the presidency.

This, as she said she “absolutely” disagrees with the re-imposition of the death penalty, which Duterte plans to do if elected president of the country.

De Lima was in Cebu City yesterday as guest speaker of a convention of Southern Leyte’s Provincial Liga nga mga Barangay at Parklane Hotel.

She said that although she hates drug lords, human traffickers and other criminals just like Duterte, they should be punished without executing them.

“Re-imposition of death penalty, I do believe, I sincerely believe, is not the solution to our problem on criminality. Pwede naman po nating labanan ang kriminalidad na hindi linalabag ang batas,” she said.

De Lima, a critic of Duterte when she still headed the Commission on Human Rights, said that while she and Duterte are alike in their desire to eradicate criminality and illegal drugs, there are other ways aside from killing them all.

She also said that Duterte cussing the pope and uttering expletives live on television have turned off several would-be supporters of the mayor. 

“Hindi pananalita yon na nagpapakita na seryoso siya sa pagtakbo sa pagka-presidente. Bakit niya gagawin iyon na alam naman niya on national TV? He is an intelligent person and alam niya na marami ang matu-turn off kung gagawin niya iyon.  At marami nga ang na-turn off,” De Lima told Cebu reporters.

 “Is that the behavior of someone who is seriously running for the presidency? Mukhang hindi. In that sense, it’s a mystery. What is he trying to do?” she added.

The former justice secretary, who went to the same law school as Duterte, said that Pope Francis should be respected especially for a country like the Philippines whose population are mostly Catholics.

“It is so unfortunate. It’s disturbing. It is scandalous. We are a Catholic country and we recently hosted Pope Francis when he was here and makakarinig ka ng ganyang comment… Nakakahiya to say the least,” De Lima sighed while shaking her head.

“Sayang kasi meron naman siya mga magagandang punto on the criminality. Sabi niya galit na galit siya sa mga criminal, ganun naman ako. Pero yung pinapanukala niya na basta nalang niya papatayin. Tama ho ba yan? Masamang ehemplo yan nga mga kabataan…. Okay lang magmura and okay lang pumatay?” she also said.

Duterte, who mentioned the unpleasant words in the context of a joke, has since apologized over what he said.

Also, De Lima said that Duterte admitting to killing people on national TV may likely earn him another investigation aside from the one already ongoing.

She said the Justice Department, the CHR, and the National Bureau of Investigation is currently collating evidence on summary executions in Davao City and how Duterte publicly said that he has knowledge about them.

“ Can we (afford to) have a president with that kind of mentality?” said De Lima, who is at odds with Duterte after she initiated an investigation the mayor while she was still the CHR chief.

De Lima said the country instead needs a simple criminal code, which she said a committee is currently crafting to hopefully improve the country’s administration of justice in which the crime categories would be lowered down from 10 to just three major crime categories—crime against person, crime against property and crime against state.

She also suggested that when there is a crime investigation, there should be a close collaboration between the prosecutor and the police investigator.

This way, she said, the investigation process would be as fast and simple as possible so that the guilty would be imprisoned and the innocent is freed as soon as possible. — (FREEMAN)