A Senate committee in the United States has approved an amendment to a pending bill that will ban the entry of any Filipino official involved in putting Senator Leila De Lima in jail.
In a tweet on Friday, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin welcomed the Senate appropriations committee’s approval of the amendment he proposed with Senator Pateick Leahy in the Fiscal Year 2020 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill.
“Good to see the Senate Appropriations Committee pass my amendment with @SenatorLeahy (US Senator Patrick Leahy) today to prohibit entry to any Philippine Government Officials involved in the politically motivated imprisonment of Filipina Senator Leila de Lima in 2017,” he said.
Good to see the Senate Appropriations Committee pass my amendment with @SenatorLeahy today to prohibit entry to any Philippine Government Officials involved in the politically motivated imprisonment of Filipina Senator Leila de Lima in 2017. We must #FreeLeilaNow.— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) September 26, 2019
“We must #FreeLeilaNow,” he added.
Durbin has called on the Philippine government to release De Lima through a resolution he earlier filed with four other U.S. senators.
De Lima, a fierce critic of the Duterte administration has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center inside Camp Crame in Quezon City on drug charges for over two years.
READ: De Lima asks Google PH to take down 'fake videos' on YouTube
The senator has repeatedly denied the allegations against her.
Durbin earlier filed a resolution in the US Senate condemning De Lima’s detention. Joining him in the initiative were Senators Marco Rubio, Ed Markey, Marsha Blackburn, and Chris Coons.
Philippine Senator Leila de Lima, a critic of extrajudicial killings under Duterte's so-called “war on drugs,” has spent the last two years in prison on bogus charges. I call on the Philippine government to unconditionally release her #FreeLeilaNow #ExpressionNOTOppression pic.twitter.com/B3lsNOnRtx— Senator Rubio Press (@SenRubioPress) September 20, 2019
De Lima has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since 2017 over her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade.
She has denied the charges, saying they were part of political persecution she is experiencing for being a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte.
READ: Bong Go wants face-to-face debate with De Lima
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This article first appeared on Inquirer.net.
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