Banned US senator: ‘Duterte sorely mistaken if he thinks he can silence me’

MANILA, Philippines — Despite the barring of his entry to the Philippines, U.S. Senator Edward Markey remains unfazed and said that President Rodrigo Duterte would not be able to silence his voice.

“President Duterte is sorely mistaken if he thinks he can silence my voice and that of my colleagues,” Markey said in a statement on Friday (Manila time).

“He has already failed to silence Senator De Lima, Maria Ressa, and others in his country who have spoken truth to power,” he added.

President Duterte is sorely mistaken if he thinks he can silence my voice. He has already failed to silence @SenLeiladeLima and others who have spoken truth to power. I stand with the people of the Philippines in fighting against his strongman tactics.https://t.co/IZ5udRHZgu

— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) January 2, 2020

Presidential spokesperson and chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo earlier confirmed that the President had banned Markey for calling for the release of Senator Leila de Lima as well as for supporting the US entry ban to Philippines officials believed to have had a hand in her detention.

Markey was among the five U.S. senators who had filed a Senate resolution calling on the Philippine government to free De Lima.

De Lima has been detained since February 2017 over what she repeatedly called as “trumped-up” drug charges against her.

The Senate resolution, likewise, called for the withdrawal of all charges against Rappler CEO and journalist Maria Ressa.

“I stand with the people of the Philippines and with my state’s vibrant Filipino-American community in fighting for the highest democratic ideals and against the strongman tactics of the Duterte government,” Markey went on.

Two other US senators, Patrick Leahy, and Richard Durbin, have also been banned from entering the Philippines.

Leahy and Durbin introduced an amendment to the 2020 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill which sought to ban US entry to Philippine officials proven to be behind De Lima’s “wrongful imprisonment.”

Edited by MUF