The following is an open letter from Sass Rogando Sasot posted on her Facebook page. Sasot was summarily named by jailed Senator Leila De Lima in a list of people she asserts were involved in her “persecution”. De Lima is hoping that the people in that list would be banned from entering the United States invoking the so-called Global Magnitsky Act which seeks to penalise “human rights violators” in such ways.
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ONLY A WARM BULLET IN MY HEAD:
AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR LEILA DE LIMA
To Senator Leila de Lima:
Several news items mentioned that you named me as one of those “responsible” for your “wrongful” arrest and detention.
This is interesting as you are blaming a private citizen, a political commentator who happened to have a sizeable following for what happened to you.
First of all, Senator de Lima, you did NOT file a counter-affidavit at all during the preliminary investigation phase of your case. That was your chance to demonstrate that evidence against you were “fabricated.” If indeed you had REAL EVIDENCE supporting your claim that evidence against you are fabricated, then no probable cause would have been found that lead to your arrest and eventual detention. Instead of doing that, you launched a political drama to gain the sympathy of the world.
Second, it is really interesting that you did NOT name the judge who issued your warrant of arrest, as well as the Supreme Court justices who voted in favour of the decision declaring your arrest legal, in the list of names you believe are responsible for your arrest and detention.
Between these judges and me, the former have actual power to order your arrest and detention. If indeed you are wrongfully arrested and detained, as you want the world to believe, then why didn’t you name in your list the judge who issued your warrant of arrest and the Supreme Court judges who affirmed the legality of the warrant served to you?
If you seriously believe that I am responsible for your “wrongful arrest and detention,” why don’t you file a legal case against me? What is stopping you from doing that?
What you are doing right now is politically persecuting people based on their speech, which happened to be against you. And you have found a supposed ally with the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines to do the dirty trick for you of silencing your critics.
But let me tell you this Senator De Lima: You cannot silence me this way. The only time you could silence me is if you put a warm bullet in my head. I may be be retiring from political blogging, but I will not delete anything I wrote against you. It is within my right to express political opinions even if they ruffle the feathers of Senators like you, as well as your powerful enablers.
You have to stop this political drama you’ve been staging for three years already. Stop your delaying legal tactics that prevent the prosecution from presenting evidence against you, that would show to the world whether you abused your authority while you were the Department of Justice secretary. If you only spent more time in defending yourself in the courts rather than staging this pathetic ploy to gain sympathy, then you would have been freed IF indeed the evidence against you are fabricated.
I would have been more sympathetic with you if ever the drug concerned is NOT crystal meth (shabu). If it were cannabis, I would have not been harsh with you as I am a firm supporter of the FULL legalization of cannabis production, sell, and use. But you allegedly profited from shabu, which destroys individual lives, families, and communities. Unlike MDMA, shabu doesn’t make you empathetic but psychotically violent. Unlike LSD or mushrooms, shabu is a substance that turns people into the worst version of themselves! I just hope that the souls of those who were raped and murdered by people high on shabu would haunt you as long as you live.
Lastly, you cannot be free from jail Senator de Lima by politically persecuting people like me. The only way you can be free is if our courts order your release. And they will only order your release if you were indeed wrongfully arrested and detained. But so far, the Supreme Court of the Philippines affirmed that you were NOT wrongfully arrested, and therefore you are NOT wrongfully detained.
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Webmaster of Get Real Philippines