MANILA, Philippines – Neophyte Senator Leila De Lima defended her former boss, former president Benigno Aquino III, from insinuations he is linked to illegal drugs in the national penitentiary.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Wednesday, September 21, said a “yellow” executive higher than the former justice secretary benefited from drug payoffs in the New Bilibid Prison. Yellow is the political color of Aquino’s Liberal Party.

While there were no names mentioned, De Lima felt Aguirre was referring to Aquino. The latter, after all, was the only higher official than her then, she said.

“I ask you, sino pa ba ang official na yellow na mas mataas sa akin (who else was a yellow official higher than me)? When I was secretary of justice, I was alter ego of the President and therefore the only one higher than me is President PNoy himself,” De Lima told reporters on Thursday, September 22.

De Lima cried foul over such accusations and called them highly “outrageous.” Aquino has so far remained mum on the issues under his term.

“Are they saying it’s my president who is a beneficiary of these things? Of course not. You know PNoy. Very outlandish, very outrageous,” De Lima said.

The senator hit anew her critics from the Duterte administration for resorting to fabricated stories to destroy her.

“‘Di ko na alam nangyayari masyado na sila nagiging confident sa sarili nila (I don’t know what’s happening that makes them so confident of themselves). They’re becoming so reckless, resorting to kwentong kuchero na ngayon (tall tales). It’s getting to be laughable,” she said.

No less than President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly accused De Lima of links to illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison, which has become the subject of a House probe.

Witnesses such as drug convicts and former officers of the National Bureau of Investigation have linked the senator to such crimes. They also alleged that they brought drug money to De Lima, which she has vehemently denied.

The probe came after she launched a Senate investigation into the spate of extrajudicial killings under the administration. – Rappler.com