(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Detained Senator Leila De Lima has expressed serious concern over the decision to replace Malacanang spokesman Ernesto Abella, saying it could lower the level of discourse and language expected from President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials.
De Lima, in a hand-written statement, said the move to let Abella go clearly showed that Duterte is a leader who revels in his men's obnoxious character and depravity.
The president on Friday named Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque as his new spokesman, replacing Abella, an evangelical pastor.
'With the departure of Secretary Abella, I fear the even further decline of the level of discourse and language we could expect from now on from the president and his men, De Lima said.
The senator is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Centre in Camp Crame in Quezon City on drug charges.
Roque in February filed an ethics complaint against De Lima for allegedly conspiring with her partymate Representative. Ron Salo to carry out her illegal activities inside the New Bilibid Prisons —the national penitentiary—in Muntinlupa City.
He said De Lima, through the help of the BuCor (Bureau of Corrections) Love Foundation Inc, a non-government organisation, was able to go on with her drug-related activities inside the national penitentiary.
The BuCor Love Foundation, headed by Salo, was involved in providing inmates set to be released from prison with appropriate technical, livelihood, management and entrepreneurial skills that help them land a job outside.
Roque said De Lima and Salo conspired to silence him in questioning their involvement in the drug trade.
De Lima, however, denied knowing Salo, saying she cannot even recall any instance that she had worked or dealt with him.
She also expressed alarm over the worsening corruption in government, not only in the national coffers but also on Filipino values that affect national identity.
The senator said the well-preserved and time-tested values are being corrupted by officials of the Duterte administration whom she said had no place in a civilised society.
'The corruption in government so grave. No, I don't just mean corruption in government in the usual sense, but a more pervasive and invasive corruption of Filipino values that affect, not just our national coffers, but our national identity, De Lima noted.
She cited presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo, who made a sexual joke in a recent interview with two woman journalists.
Panelo even accused the journalists of taking the joke wrongly to put him and the president in a bad light.
'His lack of self-awareness, or perhaps his lack of shame, even prompted him to drag the image of unsuspecting female students of a well-known Catholic school for girls as having been subjected to his verbal acts of lasciviousness, de Lima said.
The senator also mentioned an incident involving Martin Andanar, chief of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, who rudely spoke against European organisations critical of Duterte during a recent public gathering in the United Kingdom.
'But their actions and apparent mental state seem to be symptomatic of a prevalent corrupted mindset in our so-called government officials today: Why be right when you can be wrong? Why be a good public servant when you can be a bad one? After all, even the president seems to get away with it, she said.
'Who do those people think they are to reverse several centuries' worth of honing, preserving and passing on of our Filipino values? De Lima added.
Panelo, Andanar and the other officials, she said, should have no place in a civilised society, much less in the ranks of Philippine government officialdom.
'In a world that makes sense, they would already have been censured. In a world where these people even have an ounce of self-respect, they would have already publicly apologised and resigned, De Lima added.
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