Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday reminded Senator Leila De Lima not to resort to name calling to dispel allegations that she had a hand in the stabbing incident involving high profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian last September.
De Lima has described Aguirre a "despicable lying bastard" after the Cabinet official revealed on Tuesday that the inmate who stabbed Sebastian inside the New Bilibid Prison accused her and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV of hatching the kill plot.
The attempt on Sebastian's life was allegedly made to prevent him from spilling the beans before the House of Representatives on De Lima's complicity in the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary in exchange for funds for her senatorial campaign last year.
"Senator De Lima has resorted to name calling, such are the frailties of her character. Instead of facing the charges filed against her with concrete evidence in the many opportunities given to her, she can only come up with names for me like a despicable lying bastard, a chronic liar, a Secretary of Justice without balls," Aguirre said in a statement.
"It is indeed not the kind of conduct that the Filipino people expected from a public official of her stature. I can only pray for her. Please join me in praying for her," he added.
The Cabinet official said he was only quoting from the affidavit of inmate Tomas Doniña relative to the stabbing incident on September 28 which was already considered by Aguirre as hearsay.
"I did not add anything to the affidavit. Those were not my words but Doniña’s," Aguirre said.
He also wondered why De Lima used his hair again to emphasize that the charges against her are fake.
“Why is Senator De Lima so fixated on my hair? This is not the first time that she has made reference to it. Is it relevant to the proliferation of the drug trade during her time as Secretary of Justice? Is it relevant to the proliferation of abuses and special privileges for paying inmates at the National Bilibid Prison?" he said.
"My hair is the frailty of my scalp, it is the frailty of my genes, there is nothing that can be done about it. On the other hand, her actions and inactions during her time as a Secretary of Justice are frailties of her character where her choice to do or not to do, to act or not to act, is very much present."
Aguirre advised De Lima to just focus on defending herself in the complaints she is facing, four of them now being evaluated by a five-man panel of prosecutors from the Department of Justice she used to head.
“As a lawyer, and a Bar placer at that, Senator De Lima should know that cases are won or lost on the strength or weakness of the evidence presented...Where are her pieces of evidence in support of her denials? Denials without supporting evidence is a weak defense, a very weak defense," he said.
De Lima skipped the preliminary investigation conducted by the DOJ last December, thus losing her right to file a written defense to the complaints that may reach the courts. — Source GMA News
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