Problem with these senators is that they buy whatever De Lima and Ressa say with their sob stories, without even knowing just what their cases are all about.

Two United States (US) senators, Edward Markey and Dick Durbin, sought a meeting recently with Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose “Babes” Romualdez to discuss the case of detained Sen. Leila de Lima, whom the two American senators had earlier called for her immediate release while portraying De Lima as a political prisoner.

It will be recalled that five US senators earlier filed a panel resolution banning the entry of Philippine government officials involved in the detention of De Lima, which is their right. But it is not their right to demand the release of a Philippine senator from detention.

The ban of course was meant as a threat from the US senators to strengthen their demand for the release of the detained senator who stands accused of drug trading.

However, that ban apparently is proving to be useless as there are serious doubts that the current administration will give in to the demand of the US senators to release De Lima as this would go against what the Philippine Constitution and our laws state.

Romualdez was quoted as saying during the meeting that he updated Senators Markey and Durbin on the latest developments in the case of De Lima and her detention, which is what the law requires in drug cases, and about which she very well knows, having been a Justice secretary who moreover had no qualms about detaining even senators for even a longer period — and on trumped up charges, too!

Also discussed among Romualdez and the two senators was the case of Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa, who has been trying no end to portray the cases against her as cases of press freedom and political harassment, which are far from reality. The charges are not just libel and cyber libel but the more serious case of her deliberate violation of the Philippine Constitution, which states that media must be 100 percent Filipino-owned.

Unfortunately for Ressa, her Rappler is not 100 percent Filipino owned, since her partner, Pierre Omidyar, a US billionaire, has invested some $100 million in Rappler, when it went under and to date has even put up some $500,000 for the legal defense of Ressa, who is out on bail.

Omidyar is known for funding media that is critical against governments that he and others want destroyed through critical reports that can lead to ousters of such leaders.

There are other media outlets, apart from Rappler, that do the same, but all have so far proved unsuccessful in the case of getting Duterte ousted, considering the healthy economic growth under his regime, as well as his popularity ratings, which all translate to the Duterte critics’ failure to bring him down.

But are these American senators saying that the Philippines should drop the charges against Ressa and her Rappler despite her clear violation of the Philippine Constitution and the laws and for the Philippine courts hearing the drug cases against De Lima to bow to the demands of the US senators, in violation of what the law says?

Why doesn’t De Lima ask the courts for bail, for her to have her temporary freedom?

The problem with these senators is that they buy whatever De Lima and Ressa say with their sob stories, without even knowing just what their cases are all about. There were opposition senators who were detained and these US senators never bothered to look into their cases, yet now that it is De Lima, they quickly demand her release from detention?

What is also laughable about Ressa’s claims of Rappler and herself being victims of press freedom is the fact that to this day, it continues with its critical reports and claimed analyses of President Duterte and his administration.

Even more laughable, Rappler, or Ressa was picked by Facebook to be a fact checker, yet she has come out with the fake, inflated and invented drug-related deaths, which numbers were quickly picked up and inflated some more by the so-called human rights groups that have prejudged the drug war and the administration.

As for the detained senator, Leila, too, has been screaming about her rights being violated, and how long she has been in detention, which is also laughable, considering the fact that when she was the Justice chief of her yellow patron, former president Noynoy Aquino, when she charged and detained for an even longer period of time, political foes of Aquino.

The bill titled “Prohibition on Entry,” or the ban on persons in government involved in the case against the now detained senator, filed by the same US senators who demanded the release of De Lima, stands as proof that these American legislators jumped to conclusions without even knowing what the case against her, as well as Ressa and her Rappler, is all about. They just took the words of De Lima and Ressa along with reports from the yellow media in the Philippines.

It’s time these US senators learn that the Philippines is no patsy for America — legislators or not.