It is unfair for Poe to accuse De Lima that during the term of the latter as Justice Secretary drugs flourished in the country, as if De Lima was the mastermind of it all, and that De Lima should explain to the people the allegations of Espinosa and Dayan implicating the latter, as if De Lima was running away from any legal process.
Poe's generic statement follows the character demolition script of Duterte, Aguirre, Calida, Alvarez, Lacson, Gordon, et al.
Poe has not presented credible, scientific, empirical and official data proving that drugs indeed flourished during De Lima's tenure as Justice Secretary, not even the accessible data from the PNP, PDEA and DOJ from 2010 to 2016. Poe has failed to prove the veracity of her implicit message that De Lima is the alleged mastermind of narcopolitics in the country.
Poe's tacit message that De Lima is a narcopolitician, following the Duterte script, is based solely on the Espinosa and Dayan tainted affidavits, which, as we all know, were executed under duress before Bato, Aguirre, Alvarez and/or their minions and were prejudiced by extreme pressures, questions, and death threats.
My reading of the matter is that De Lima is ready, willing, and prepared to answer the Duterte-inspired VACC criminal complaint it had filed with the DOJ, provided, that the said criminal complaint would be investigated by the proper constitutionally independent forum, which is the Office of the Ombudsman. Not the DOJ. The DOJ is under the political control of Aguirre and Duterte.
Aguirre should have forwarded outright the VACC criminal complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman for its final disposition pursuant to the ethical doctrine of "Delicadeza".
Aguirre is a political hatchet man and de facto spokesman of Duterte to demolish De Lima.
Aguirre has lost the quasi-judicial ability to be just and fair.
Duterte is a man of hatred. He cannot forget how De Lima, as CHR chair during the Arroyo administration, held a series of investigations in Davao into his deadly DDS that had killed 1,400 helpless victims, mostly the youth involved in petty crimes. No big drug lords died.
His courage to kill was limited to helpless and poor citizens of Davao who had no political might and economic power to flaunt.
De Lima's CHR report was supported and corroborated by the HRW and the AI, both of which are respected global human rights organizations.
The ICC, the UN human rights agencies, the world mass media, the EU, the Asean, the Vatican and other borderless humanitarian organizations are closely monitoring Duterte's war on drugs.
Duterte's wicked and deadly war on drugs has killed one victim every forty minutes since he took over Malacanang on July 1, per a press statement of Sen. Pangilinan,
Incidentally, some top VACC leaders have been appointed by Duterte to juicy GOCC positions. The bias and partiality of the VACC in favor of Duterte's secret agenda are obvious. The VACC has degenerated into a mercenary political group.
The VACC continues to rely on the tainted Espinosa and Dayan affidavits as well as the equally tainted affidavits of convicted drug lords serving life sentence in Muntinlupa.
The said affidavits were apparently prepared with the participation of Bato, PNP officials, Aguirre, and other Duterte confidential demolition team members.
A big conspiracy is executing the Duterte demolition script.
The affiants of the said affidavits obviously wanted to obtain as many legal and political concessions as possible from Duterte, Aguirre, et al in return for demolishing the name of De Lima.
Further, as a Senate ethics committee member who will be among those who will try and decide the pending ethics complaints against De Lima, Poe should have restrained her talkative political tongue from prejudging the complaints.
As a politician and semi-showbiz figure, Poe clearly needs free publicity to maintain her household name for reelection and other political goals now and in the future.
But Poe should avoid unfair, empty and premature statements involving ethics complaints pending before the Senate ethics committee, of which she is a voting member. if she were to be true to her oath of office as a legislator.
Her oath includes the constitutional duty to be just, fair and truthful to the people.
