Sen. Leila de Lima is a marvel. Despite her being confined in a detention cell for charges involving drug-related issues, she gets an enviable media mileage that other legislators can only salivate for.
Not even former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had the same luxury when she was detained. She was held incommunicado on the heels of the order of de Lima, who was then justice secretary, to bar her departure to seek medical treatment on the flimsy election fraud conjured by devious characters of the Aquino administration.
Not contented with that, since GMA was able to file a bail bond, de Lima charged her with plunder, a non-bailable offense, making sure she stays in detention for her role in the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office fund. Both cases were dismissed by the Supreme Court. The High Court also rebuked de Lima for holding at that time the departure of the then ailing ex-president as unconstitutional.
In a radical reversal of fortune and the dictates of karma, Sen. de Lima exchanged places with the former president, who is now back in the limelight as House Speaker. Her alleged kinks with drug syndicates makes her case non-bailable too.
For a long while, she was in the company of her fellow senators, whom she indicted for plunder. But alas, karma is quite harsh on her for she is staying in confinement longer than her former cellmates.
Unlike former president Arroyo, however, de Lima enjoys unbridled liberty of expression and she remains to be the darling of the press. Of late, she took a jab at former Special Assistant to the President Bong Go. She suspects that Bong, who has resigned from his job, is using government money for tarpaulins and billboards that she claimed she spotted all over the country.
She also suspected that Bong Go’s presence in various media outlets are funded by the government.
This is is unfair because, as the former SAP would put it, he used “not a single centavo” from the government to extend assistance to the poor and victims of calamities, including those in need of medical intervention.
He puts it bluntly: “Marami akong mga kaibigan na naniniwala sa aking ipinaglalaban at tumutulong sa akin na maghatid ng tulong sa ating mga kababayan na nabiktima ng sunog at iba pang trahedya.
Hindi ako katulad ni Sen. de Lima na umano’y gumamit ng pundo galing sa mga drug lords para sa kanyang ambisyong politikal.”
The senator finds it rather incredible that Bong Go could extend so much assistance to those in need without dipping his hands in government coffers. Leila is rattling mad and confused. She forgot, or is plainly ignorant, that Davao City has institutionalized “Lingap Center” during the term of then mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Lingap extends help to those in need of various assistance and the funds and supplies come from friends and supporters of the then mayor. A corollary clinic, especially for children afflicted with cancer, was established by the mayor. The point person designated to make these social outreach programs was Bong Go.
The Malasakit Centers that are sprouting all over the country are personally supervised by Bong. Leila might find this incredible but there are benevolent people who support the project because they trust that their contributions will be used for those in need.
Bong is now a private person but he continues with his and the President‘s “personal social responsibility” projects. As to the billboards and tarpaulins, Bong had repeatedly told his supporters to take them down. Some complied but others are simply bullheaded.
But you cannot take it away the sympathy and support that Bong is presently enjoying from the masses. He was and still is the action man of President Duterte when it comes to social action programs. In and now out of Malacañang as SAP the Chief Executive would still insist Bong to be on his side.
There is lesson to be learned here by de Lima.
As the saying goes, “do not throw stones at your neighbors if you are living in a house of glass.”