MANILA– A Palace official has urged the United States senators to stop interfering with the Philippines state affairs following numerous calls to let opposition Sen. Leila de Lima go out of detention.
Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles said the US Senate resolution calling on President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Philippine officials supposedly behind the detention of De Lima can be deemed as “meddling.”
“We deem it to be pangingialam. Parang dinidiktahan tayo kung paano patakbuhin ang justice system natin,” Nograles told reporters in Malacañang on Friday.
“Independent tayo eh. Sovereign state tayo so don’t meddle in our sovereignty,” he stressed.
Nograles explained that De Lima was given due process and the drug charges against her went through the “regular” court process as provided under Philippine laws.
The US Senate on Thursday passed a resolution that called for De Lima’s immediate release, branding her as a “prisoner of conscience, detained solely on account of her political views and the legitimate exercise of her freedom of expression.”
It also asked Trump to impose Magnitsky sanctions on Philippine government officials behind her arrest and detention.
The Global Magnitsky Act authorizes the US government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from the US.
De Lima was accused of accepting drug money from prisoners when she was justice secretary from 2010 and 2015. She has repeatedly denied the allegations./PN
