“Meddlesome US legislators are expecting to collect political brownies from assailing Rody, but the Philippine leader had turned the tables on them.

The travel restrictions on Democrat senators are overdue since the likes of Patrick Leahy, Richard Durbin and Benjamin Cardin had harassed President Rody Duterte at the instance of their Liberal Party (LP) allies since the start of his term in 2016.

Lobby groups in the United States Congress were reportedly behind the effort of Senators Leahy and Durbin to introduce the obnoxious rider in the 2020 US Budget law that sought to bar unnamed Philippine officials responsible for the “wrongful imprisonment” of suspected drug trafficker Sen. Leila de Lima.

The existence of pressure groups in the US legislature is legitimate since these are considered part of the democratic processes in that country and allow even the underworld to be represented in influencing elected officials.

It is not even improbable that drug syndicates, hurt by the all-out war against narcotics launched by President Duterte, financed the campaign against Rody and calling for the unconditional release of De Lima who harbored them during the previous regime.

Leahy, particularly, appears always at his loudest near an election period in the US when the natural need among politicians is the raising of campaign funds.

The American lawmakers see to it that the Philippine leader is tracked and, similar to their local counterpart detractors, create a political spin detrimental to Mr. Duterte.

Prior to initiating the obnoxious rider, Leahy was already on President Duterte’s back particularly after he pursued a policy to warm up relations with both China and Russia a few months after entering Malacañang or shortly before the Americans went to the polls in November 2016.

It was then that Leahy and the Democrats who were still in power led by former President Barack Obama were assailing Mr. Duterte’s methods in the war on drugs.

Rody during his rounds of local military camps said nothing would stop his campaign against narcotics despite rising criticisms from abroad.

Leahy and Cardin asked the US Congress to review the millions of dollars in yearly American aid to the country due to Mr. Duterte’s campaign.

The senators sought then what amounted to sanctions on Rody who had yet to warm his seat.

They invoked the Leahy Law, which requires US assistance to be tied to conditions on the observance of international human rights conventions and as encouragement for foreign governments to hold accountable perpetrators of rights abuses.

Rody was apparently expecting the US backlash after his well-publicized clash with US President Barack Obama during the Leaders Meeting of the ASEAN Summit. He reiterated that he would not be deterred by threats from Western nations and that his administration would be guided by an independent foreign policy.

Leahy then was already making noise about the problem that De Lima had been facing from Rody.

Leahy in his colloquy, which is equivalent to a privilege speech in the local Congress, said then, “In a troubling sign that these concerns are falling on deaf ears, President Duterte’s most vocal opponent of his anti-drug policies, who President Duterte has publicly accused of being involved in drug trafficking and attempting to smear him, was recently removed from her position as the head of the Senate human rights panel investigating the killings. She was replaced by a senator who supports giving the police the authority to arrest anyone without a warrant.”

De Lima then was on the verge of being criminally prosecuted for her alleged deep involvement in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) drug factory mess where she was alleged to have gained financial and, as Rody claimed, romantic favors from the inmates.

Rody thereafter made global headlines for calling Obama a “son of a bitch” and US Ambassador Philip Goldberg for being a “gay son of a bitch.”

Obama, before exiting in November 2016, got a farewell lecture from Rody during the ASEAN Summit in Laos about American atrocities during the US-Philippines War in the 1900s, which was Rody’s way of telling the Democrats about their hypocrisy.

The meddlesome US legislators are expecting to collect political brownies from assailing Rody, but the Philippine leader had turned the tables on them.

The United States, which assumes the role of carrying the torch of democracy in the world, is nonetheless afflicted with gold sickness where reasons appear blinded by material gains that reflect on the Democratic senators’ actions.