De Lima endorsement of "hit man" Edgar Matobato foolishly persists despite ouster from Senate Justice Committee

The overwhelming vote to remove Leila de Lima as chair of the Senate committee on justice is shaking up the yellow media.

They’re getting so desperate they can’t think rationally anymore. They’re giving De Lima so much air time, people around me are tuning out every time she comes on.

We know what’s coming next. The yellow media will turn De Lima into a martyr and claim that she was removed as committee chair to stop Matobato from testifying further. The yellow media will portray the clownish Matobato as a star witness, and act like his inane claims have not been debunked. They really are living in an alternate universe.

De Lima is all over the place moaning about her predicament, but the networks don’t give much airplay to the facts that disproved Matobato’s claims, such as:

– The statement of the family and lawyer of Richard King that the Dutertes had absolutely nothing to do with King’s murder.

– The statement of the Nograleses that none of their bodyguards was murdered in 2010 as Matobato claimed, and that their political rivalry with the Dutertes never got violent.

– The lack of any records on supposed international terrorist Sali Makdul who Matobato claimed was killed on orders of Duterte, and the revelation of a village leader from Matobato’s old neighborhood that “Sali Makdul” was actually the name of a man who lived in their community years ago and had a conflict with Matobato.

The list of Matobato’s inconsistencies and falsehoods goes on and on, yet the yellow media and Leila de Lima still keep trying to pass him off as a credible witness. It’s pitiful, actually. They’re just not getting through to anyone. They may have fooled the gullible foreign media, who can’t imagine that it’s possible to toy around with Senate testimonies the way De Lima did with Matobato. But we Filipinos are not that dumb. We’ve seen this before. This is classic De Lima. Arranging perjury at the Senate is child’s play when you’ve defied Supreme Court orders.

Her ill motives were so obvious, it’s a waste of energy to deny them. Just listen to this interview where Senator Ping Lacson described how De Lima deliberately kept Matobato a secret from him, even though he was her co-chair in the Senate hearings. She didn’t tell him, but she tipped off the Senate media corps!

She did this so Lacson would not be able to test Matobato’s credibility before Matobato was presented on the Senate floor. Had Matobato been properly vetted, he would never have made it to the Senate floor with all the preposterous loopholes in his stories.

De Lima’s agenda was clear from the start. She did not make Matobato give a sworn written affidavit before he testified, so he was able to say whatever he wanted knowing he would not be held liable. It’s also very likely that De Lima already knew Matobato’s claims about Richard King, the Nograles bodyguards, Sali Makdul, etc were false. After all, she was in contact with Matobato since 2013 when she admitted him to the WPP as DOJ secretary. She wasn’t able to file any cases against Duterte then, probably because she knew Matobato wouldn’t hold up as a witness. Yet, she went ahead and let Matobato “perform” on the Senate floor last week, to create a spectacle for the international media.

Leila de Lima turned the Senate into a joke. She disrespected the other (non-yellow) senators who were there by making them unwitting props for her freak show. She absolutely deserved to be removed as chairman of the committee on justice. In fact, most Filipinos probably wish she had been removed from the Senate completely.

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