President Rodrigo Duterte is not bothered that US President Trump signed a law banning entry to those involved in the “wrongful detention” of Senator Leila de Lima since he does not want to go there despite the invitation of the American leader, Malacañang has said.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President was not interested in going to the US even if he was invited by Trump to visit the White House in 2017 following what was deemed a “very friendly conversation” over the phone between the two leaders.
‘The President said, ‘I don’t want to go there in the first place.’ If he doesn’t want to go there, why would he be bothered?” Panelo told Palace reporters.
Trump on Friday approved the US government’s 2020 budget which asks Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prohibit the entry of Philippine officials involved in the detention of De Lima, a vocal critic of the administration’s anti-drug campaign.
De Lima has been detained since February 2017 and repeatedly denied her alleged link in illegal drug trade when she was still a justice secretary.
She called the allegations against her as “political persecution.”
The US State Department has yet to release a list of Philippine officials who will be banned from entering the US.
De Lima on Wednesday said she wished for freedom as she spends her third Christmas in jail since her arrest.
“I hope that this is my last Christmas in detention so that my normal life as a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and as a duly-elected senator be now restored,” she said in a statement.
She cannot vote on measures nor conduct hearings as a legislator since she is physically unable to go to the Senate.