Former senator and Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima has gone on the offensive against what she is calling a fresh wave of politically driven attacks, filing a perjury complaint against 18 alleged former Marines before the Department of Justice on Monday.
The complaint takes direct aim at allegations that she received between P30 million and P70 million in cash delivered in suitcases and paper bags — purportedly during meetings with former Congressman Zaldy Co, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, and former National Security Adviser Eduardo Año.
“Lahat po yun kasinungalingan. Pagtanggap ko ng pera saan man yan linagay, sa maleta, sa paper bag, o anumang container. Napakalaking kasinungalingan. Ito na naman, inulit na naman nila,” De Lima said in an ambush interview after the filing.
Speaking directly to the Duterte camp, she made an unambiguous appeal: “Puwede ho ba tigilan niyo na ako? Stop it.”
De Lima drew a direct line between the current accusations and the drug trade charges she spent nearly seven years in detention fighting before her acquittal. “Ginawa niyo na yan dati sa akin… unjustly detained for almost seven years for trumped-up, politically motivated, fabricated charges,” she said, characterizing both episodes as coordinated efforts to destroy her standing.
She pressed further: “They are besmirching my name, smearing my reputation… No more please, no more. Stop your lies against me.”
The perjury complaint is the latest development in an escalating pattern of mutual accusations involving figures from the Duterte political circle. De Lima and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV have both consistently denied allegations of involvement in kickback schemes tied to the same set of complaints.
