Solons: Tit for tat

I will suggest to President Duterte to ban these legislators from entering our country for interfering in our internal affairs.

Members of the Philippine Congress went on the offensive yesterday against United States legislators who called for a ban on the entry to their nation of officials tagged as having a hand in the detention of Sen. Leila de Lima, as they called for a retaliation by restricting Democrat Senators Patrick Leahy and Richard Durbin from the country.

Leahy and Durbin proposed an amendment to the 2020 US appropriations bill that would provide for the prohibition.

Both Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go are seeking travel restrictions to the country for the two American politicians.

Speaking in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, appropriately to mark an atrocity committed by US forces on Filipinos during the Filipino-American war, Go vowed to make a parallel proposal to President Rodrigo Duterte to deny access to the country of the American lawmakers.

“These senators should also be banned here in the Philippines. I will suggest to President Duterte to ban these legislators from entering our country for interfering in our internal affairs. These senators think they know better than us in governing ourselves,” Go said.

Before a jam-packed crowd at the Balangiga coliseum, Go retorted to the US senate panel saying “Nakakaloko kayo!” (You drive me crazy!)

“I condemn this act by the US senators,” he said to a cheering crowd composed mainly of local government officials, Balangiga townfolk and visitors. “This is an affront to our sovereignty and to our ability to govern ourselves,” according to the senator.

Go was invited as the main guest of the 118th commemoration of Balangiga encounter where the locals, dressed as women, attacked a group of American soldiers at the signal of the Church bells.

In retaliation, the American soldiers killed all men in sight, including children who were big enough to carry a gun. The US soldiers also carted the three bells as war booties, which were recently returned by the US government.

Go led in the wreath-laying ceremony in honor of those who perished during the Balangiga Encounter at the monument of local hero Valeriano Abanador who led the Balangiga Uprising.

During his talk, Go said the approval of the US Senate panel of an amendment to a bill that would ban officials involved in the detention of De Lima is an “affront to our sovereignty and to our ability to government ourselves.”

“This disrespects the entire judicial process of the Philippines by questioning its competence,” he said, noting that the case against De Lima reached the Supreme Court.

Go recounted an incident in Davao City when an American citizen hit his car. “He was arrogant and shameless. He refused to produce his driver’s license when asked by our traffic enforcers,” Go indicated.

He also stressed that De Lima’s detention is in accordance to Philippine laws.

“Sen. Leila de Lima is detained through a lawful order of an independent court after a careful and thorough determination of her case. Her detention, arising from her involvement in illegal drugs, was affirmed by no less than the Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines,” Go explained.

Amid all these moves to interfere in the country’s sovereignty, Go also vowed to fight for the rights of all Filipinos, just like the President.

American lifeline Suspected drug trafficker Sen. Leila de Lima reaches out to her US Congress backers. AFP

Sotto, in a statement, also criticized the American senators’ move, calling them meddlers.

“How would they feel if the Philippine Senate files a resolution saying senators supporting the move to impeach US President Donald Trump should be banned from the Philippines? They are clearly meddling,” he said.

De Lima is “innocent until proven guilty… but you can’t have a US senator judge the case,” he added.

“Maybe they still think of the country as an American Commonwealth,” Sotto said.

Sen. Richard Gordon also dismissed the moves of the US legislators as posturing for the US elections next year.

“Clearly it is a bombshell since they are having elections there, but it is blatant meddling in our affairs. Look, we have courts in place, there are lawyers, so what’s the point in interfering?” he asked.

“The Democrats are doing all they can (to get noticed). We once asked them for compensation to Filipinos who fought during World War II and they replied by accusing us of having extrajudicial killings,” Gordon noted.

Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez noted that “brazen move to interfere with the internal affairs of our independent and sovereign nation makes the senators appear a moron at least, stupid at best.”

“They should be reminded that the Philippines is no longer an American colony. For them to think and act that way shows their misguided messianic complex.”

“Who are they to meddle into internal matters that have gone through the Philippine court systems and legal processes and suddenly, sweepingly-arrogantly even-call these as merely politically motivated?” he noted.

Alvarez called on the foreign lawmakers to stick to their mandate as senators of their country and stay within that jurisdiction “rather than dipping their hands into our domestic concerns.”

De Lima has been detained since February 2017 on allegations made by high-profile convicts of being a drug trafficker at the state penitentiary when she was Department of Justice secretary.

Leahy and Durbin, to press for their earlier demand for the unconditional release of De Lima, proposed an amendment in the 2020 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill to deny US entry to any Philippine government official involved in De Lima’s detention.