'De Lima threat personal'

MANILA, Philippines - The security threat hounding Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima, contrary to her claim, is not work-related, sources in the intelligence community said yesterday.

De Lima has tightened security at the DOJ headquarters after receiving threats to her security as a result of her job.

“It’s personal and not work-related,” said one of the sources, whose team has been silently working to identify those who wanted to harm De Lima. They declined to elaborate on their findings.

De Lima said she was the subject of surveillance within and outside the DOJ, and said the case against retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan could be related to the threat. Palparan went into hiding after the DOJ filed kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges against him last month for the alleged enforced disappearance of two University of the Philippines students in 2006.

De Lima, reacting to the sources’ claim, told The STAR in a text message that “there is no intelligence report at all on that personal angle. Whoever is the source of that information must be sowing yet another intrigue.”

She said the department’s Intelligence Service Operations Group (ISOG) was still validating the source of the threat as of yesterday afternoon. She refused to elaborate.