De Lima: Bato’s narco-terrorism angle in Davao blast inappropriate

Senator Leila De Lima on Sunday said the Philippine National Police's theory that the Davao City blast could be an act of "narco-terrorism" was inappropriate.

"It is more than inappropriate to characterize in the same breath the extremist terrorist attack in Davao City also as an act of "narco-terrorism", or worse, as having been funded by the political opposition -- the first as advanced by the PNP Chief, and the second by a well-known ideologue of the Duterte administration - without any verification or validation," De Lima said.

The senator was also referring to President Rodrigo Duterte's former campaign spokesperson Peter Laviña, who said in a post on Facebook that the political opposition is among those who are likely behind the bomb attack.

"This is not the time to use a terrorist attack of a rebel extremist group to loosely and recklessly paint a picture of a conspiracy against the State among drug lords, the terrorists, and the legitimate political opposition," she said.

De Lima said she was hoping that members of Duterte's inner circle do not have the same views of the attack in Davao City, which claimed the lives of 14 people.

"We fervently hope that this tendency among some prominent officials and close advisers of the President is an isolated perspective, and does not represent a consensus in Malacañang to use each and every terrorist attack on our people, whether on the civilian population or the military and our security forces, as an opportunity to wag the dog," she said.

She added: "Prominent Malacañang officials and close advisers of the President must be clear that the national security threat is terrorism, and not democracy and free speech."

De Lima had been tagged in a matrix of the alleged drug operations at the New Bilibid Prison recently released by Duterte. The senator has dismissed the matrix as garbage.

Meanwhile, De Lima urged the public to be vigilant against acts of terror and attacks on civil liberties amid the declaration of Duterte, placing the entire country under a state of lawlessness.

Duterte made the declaration hours after the Davao City blast. Aside from thwarting lawless violence, the President said authorities may use his declaration to intensify his campaign against illegal drugs.

De Lima said the admninistration should be mindful that terrorism is the "enemy of the state" and was hoping that the government will "not turn against its own citizens in the fight against terrorism." —Joseph Tristan Roxas/ALG, GMA News