Phl envoy: US entry ban does exist

Malacañang on Sunday confirmed the United States indeed imposed a ban on Philippine officials involved in the detention of opposition senator Leila de Lima, who is facing illegal drugs-related charges.

“The [Philippine] Ambassador to the US [Jose Manuel] “Babe” Romualdez confirmed it but enforceable only when certain conditions imposed by the US law are met,” Panelo’s text message to reporters read.

Even before Romualdez’s confirmation, President Rodrigo Duterte has fired back, saying the Philippine government will be forced to require American nationals entering the country to secure visas should Filipino officials be denied entry to the US, as sought by US senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy.

Durbin and Leahy have been subsequently banned from entering Philippine territory.

“Rather than responding by irrationally threatening to deny visas to American citizens, the Duterte government should either release Senator De Lima immediately or provide her the fair, public trial she is entitled to,” said Leahy in a press release.

Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra extended an invitation to Leahy’s legal staff to “come over and pore over the evidence so far presented in court, instead of relying on so-called reports which are at best second hand evidence and at worst multiple hearsay.”

Panelo said that as an independent and sovereign state, the Philippines “will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our processes as a sovereign state.”

“The case of Senator De Lima is not one of persecution but of prosecution,” Panelo said. (With a report from Alvin Murcia)