Panelo hits back at ‘ignorant’ US Senator Leahy

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo took a jab at American Sen. Patrick Leahy, saying the latter was “ignorant of our procedural rules subjecting a person charged with the commission of a crime.”

Panelo issued the statement after Leahy responded to his remark on the supposed interference of the American senators after a US Senate committee passed an amendment that would prohibit entry of any Philippine official involved in the detention of Sen. Leila De Lima.

In a statement sent to ABS-CBN News, Leahy said: “I assume President [Rodrigo] Duterte’s spokesman who defended the wrongful imprisonment of Senator De Lima does not consider our aid to be ‘interfering’ in their sovereignty.”

But Panelo branded Leahy as “ignorant” of the procedural rules in the country in subjecting a person charged with the commission of a crime.

He added that the American senator had not even set foot in the Philippines “for the sole purpose of personally examining the case of De Lima that he may have a reasonable basis to buttress his proposal.”

“Hence in citing abuse of Philippine officials without an iota of proof he was speaking not only of blissful ignorance but unscented abuse,” Panelo said in a statement.

“When Senator Leahy speaks of abuse he must be referring to his abuse of his freedom of expression, as he waxes a false and malicious narrative against our government officials with unparalleled arrogance and without a glint of remorse,” he added.

Panelo then said that he was merely defending the “independence of the official actions of the institutions of this Republic” and the “sovereignty of this nation from outside interference.”

“What I am defending is the country’s presidency which commands the occupant to serve and protect the people from the enemies of the state that are bent on destroying the nation and the republic, which are constantly under assault by the terrorists, drug lords and pushers, communist and Muslim rebels,” Panelo said.

Panelo also hit Leahy’s remark on giving aid to the country.

“Giving aids or grants is not a form of sovereign interference. They are given by a state to another by reason of comity and friendship. The Philippines welcomes them,” Panelo said.

“Grants or aids with attached conditions are anathema to the very purpose of such generosity and we reject them, for they cloth the donor the authority as well as the gumption to meddle into our internal affairs thereby trampling our sovereign rights,” he added.

“We remind Senator Leahy that the Republic of the Philippines is not a vassal nor a colony of America. It is an independent state that is fiercely protective of its sovereignty and subservient to no other country,” he said.

/atm