IN trying to publicly humiliate Senator Leila de Lima during last week’s hearing of the House committee on justice, some lawmakers brought shame, not only to their political target, but also to themselves and the chamber to which they belong. In trying to debase the senator, they have too readily reveled in the stench of the sewer.
In an investigation that ostensibly aimed to uncover the truth behind the proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison, these lawmakers seemed more interested in what happened in the bedroom than in the national penitentiary.
The instrument for their prurient obsession was Ronnie Dayan, who admitted to having a seven-year affair with the senator, and being her bagman when she was Justice secretary.
President Rodrigo Duterte has linked De Lima, through Dayan, to the drug trade inside the national penitentiary,
But none of the voyeuristic lawmakers who questioned Dayan seemed overly concerned with establishing a link between the former Justice secretary and the drug money she was supposed to have collected. Instead, they sought to elicit information from her former lover that would hold De Lima up to public scorn and ridicule.
Thus we had Una Ang Edukasyon party-list Rep. Salvador Belaro Jr. asking Dayan if the senator had a favorite food, and if he was fond of hot chili peppers, of if they marked their anniversary when they were still going together. When did De Lima agree to become his girlfriend, Belaro wanted to know. And what was the intensity of their relationship throughout those seven years they were together. What year, he asked, did their relationship reach a climax.
Capiz 2nd District Rep. Fredenil Castro asked Dayan if his and De Lima’s relationship was based on love that was pure, solid and honest. Then later, he wanted Dayan to say if his relationship was rooted not just in love, but also in lust.
Ilocos Norte 1st District Representative Rodolfo Fariñas wanted to know if Dayan and De Lima still slept in the same room when their relationship was on the wane.
None of this was relevant to the question of illegal drugs in the NBP. And none of this did as much damage to De Lima as the incontrovertible evidence presented during the hearing that the senator had advised Dayan through text messages to go into hiding to avoid answering questions before a congressional inquiry.
One facile view is that De Lima, who has falsely presented herself as the defender of all that is moral, merely got what she deserved anyway. This may be so, but by miscalculating their punches and wallowing in the sewer, a handful of misguided congressmen may have done what De Lima herself has been unable to do very well up to this point—win some public sympathy.
There is a tendency to dismiss complaints about slut-shaming in the Congress as a partisan issue, or a women’s issue, mainly because the loudest complaints come from female members, mainly from the Liberal Party to which De Lima belongs.
But slut-shaming isn’t merely a partisan concern or a women’s issue—it should offend all of us who have mothers, sisters and daughters. That our elected representatives should think they can waste public resources and our time with their salacious innuendos and uncivil behavior offends, not only our sensibilities but also our intelligence.
De Lima has surely been damaged by revelations in the House last week, but we would argue that she is not the only loser.