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 ex-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was illegally detained, had the same luxury. She was held incommunicado on the heels of then Justice secretary De Lima’s order 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 stayed in detention for her role in the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes funds. Both cases were dismissed by the Supreme Court. The High Court rebuked the ex-DOJ Secretary for holding the departure of the ailing ex-President as unconstitutional, and the second for lack of basis.
In a radical reversal of fortunes and the dictates of karma Senator De Lima exchanged places with the former President who is now back in the limelight as House Speaker. Her involvement in drug syndicates makes it non-bailable too. For a long while she was in the company of her fellow detainee-senators whom she indicted for plunder but alas, karma is quite harsh on her for she seemed to stay longer in confinement than her cellmates.
Moreover she has a retinue of media writers who obviously at the drop of a hat would accord her the space and time at her call. She too is not short of supporters from European parliaments who are made to understand that her detention partakes of political harassment and has nothing to do with illegal drugs but just maybe on account of her frailty as a woman.
Unlike former President Arroyo, however, Senator 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 which she claimed she spotted all over the country. She also suspected that Bong Go’s presence in various media outlets is funded by the government. The indictment is unfair because, as the former SAP would put it, “not a single centavo” from the government is being used by him 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 Senator De Lima na umano’y gumamit ng pundo galing sa mga drug lords para sa kanyang ambisyong politikal.”
There is a lesson to be learned here by detainee De Lima. As the saying goes, “do not throw stones at your neighbors if you are living in a house of glass.” There is much to learn too from the brand of public service that Bong is doing. It will take you away from your predilections that had brought you to where you are today.