PERHAPS on the strength of name recognition, the ruling Liberal Party has included Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in its list of possible senatorial candidates for 2016. De Lima is publicly ambivalent about the idea, but she wears her ambition as obviously as the scarves she favors.
After all, how else can we explain her constant and spirited defense of President Benigno Aquino III, even on his most legally indefensible actions?
When the police board of inquiry found that the President was responsible for violating the chain of command in the covert Mamasapano operation in which 44 police commandos were killed, De Lima immediately sprang to his defense, saying he could not be held liable for this because the chain of command applied only to military organizations, not to civilian agencies such as the Philippine National Police.
In so doing, she brushed aside Executive Order No. 226 on the rule of command responsibility particularly in law enforcement agencies, issued by then President Fidel Ramos in 1995, which has never been amended or repealed.
“There is a chain of command in the Philippine National Police and it also applies to other agencies… Even in the corporate world, there is a chain of command. A commander is responsible for what his subordinate does or fails to do,” Ramos said.
But Secretary De Lima insisted that Ramos was “confused” and offered only what amounted to her opinion as a rejoinder.
“Can you imagine now the entire civilian bureaucracy adopting this chain of command concept? That would make us here in the executive branch just like the military. I don’t agree with that,” she said.
She also insisted that the President violated no law when he involved his close friend, suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima, in the covert police operation, even though he was suspended at the time on allegations of corruption.
De Lima then appealed to the public not to be too hasty in judging the President despite the damaging findings of the police board of inquiry and the Senate panel that also found Mr. Aquino ultimately responsible for the debacle.
“This President is a very responsible person and he has the interest of our country at heart,” she said, adding that it would be “unfair” to prejudge the President on the basis of the findings of the two investigating bodies.
This appeal for fairness is rich with irony, given De Lima’s penchant for throwing away all such notions when going after the President’s political enemies with hammer and tongs. She even defied a direct order from the Supreme Court on Mr. Aquino’s behalf when he wanted his predecessor arrested in 2011.
Nor did fairness come into play in her first major act as Justice secretary, when she meekly stood by as the President threw out her recommendations on the Luneta hostage crisis to protect his friends and political allies who were responsible for the mess.
Perhaps it is Secretary De Lima who is confused. As one lawyer observed in this publication, as attorney general of the Republic of the Philippines by virtue of her position as secretary of Justice, De Lima is the legal counsel of the government, not of Mr. Aquino.
Now more than ever, when the Senate has been debased by sycophants and the unqualified, we need men and women of independent thought who are unafraid to do what is right. We don’t need another presidential lapdog in the Senate. We already have Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Surely we can do better.