Duterte spokesman critical of U.S. senator's comments on senator detention
- Country:
- Philippines
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman on Sunday criticized a U.S. lawmaker for making a "baseless" accusation of abuse in the case of a detained critic of the Filipino leader. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo was reacting to a statement by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, who said the detention of Philippine Senator Leila De Lima was a "wrongful imprisonment".
Leahy made the remarks in a statement he sent to local network ABS-CBN News on Friday, in which he criticized Panelo for saying Washington was interfering in Philippine affairs over a proposed travel ban against officials behind De Lima's imprisonment. De Lima, among the biggest critics of Duterte's deadly anti-drug crackdown, has been detained since 2017 on narcotics charges.
A U.S. Senate bill has been filed seeking to bar entry of Philippine officials found to be involved in De Lima's imprisonment. "Every year, the United States provides large amounts of aid to the Philippines, and I have supported that aid," Leahy was quoted by ABS-CBN News as saying.
"I assume President Duterte's spokesman who defended the wrongful imprisonment of Senator De Lima does not consider our aid to be 'interfering' in their sovereignty," Leahy said. Panelo said Leahy's statement assumed the American lawmaker has sufficient knowledge of Philippine laws and had personally examined De Lima's case.
Panelo also said in a statement Leahy had never visited the Philippines to personally examine De Lima's case.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ALSO READ
Biden considering Australia request to drop Julian Assange prosecution
US Delegation to Embark on Trade Mission to India to Discover Promising Agribusiness Opportunities
Amazon owes $525 mln in cloud-storage patent fight, US jury says
Floods swamp swathes of Russia and Kazakhstan but worse still to come
Biden and Japan's Kishida forge new partnership, eyeing China and Russia