Facebook page “Showbiz Government” shared on July 21 a blog with a title saying, “Sen. De Lima, gusto mag resign pero pinigilan daw sya ng mamayan.”
As of writing, the Facebook post has earned 10,000 reactions, 1,600 shares, and 2,600 comments. It has truly gone viral.
Many of the comments were not that kind towards the senator, clearly reacting to blog title.
But does this mean that what the blog claimed about de Lima, based on its title, is true?
If you click on the link to the blog, you’d be directed to a page bearing no other content except a YouTube video that lasts for 12 minutes and 5 seconds. It is actually a clip of de Lima’s interview with Howie Severino of the GMA news program “News to Go” while she was still campaigning for a Senate seat. Take note of the date during which the video was uploaded. It was on March 10, 2016, in the middle of the campaign.
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The things she talked about in the senatorial interview with Severino included the following points:
- High profile cases filed against government officials when she served as Justice Secretary
- The progress in dealing with the Mamasapano encounter that led to the death of SAF 44
- Accusations about ‘selective justice’, which de Lima defended, saying that DOJ and NBI investigated everyone, regardless of ‘political color’
- Whether Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. should ask for apology to the human rights victims during Martial Law
- Her relationship with Iglesia ni Cristo
- Possible first bill if she gets elected as senator – speed up and simplify the criminal investigation process and ways to strengthen case build up
- Her opinions on death penalty, same sex marriage, divorce, Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)
- Her stress busters
Obviously, she was campaigning for one of the 12 senatorial seats for the May 9 elections, which she won. The blog was already deceiving readers at this point when it did not offer any other content aside from the video of de Lima’s interview as an aspiring senator then.
The title was plainly made to become an incendiary material that will trigger people to react, taking advantage of the fact that many netizens usually don’t care about the content since they simply read the title and type out their comments.
Another point of deception that the blog made was the fact that it was obviously referring to de Lima’s alleged desire to resign as a senator, seeing as how the title called her “Senator de Lima.” If you also take the time to look for news about de Lima, there was nothing about her resigning as a Senator. In fact, the latest news about her had her saying that she is not backing down from her senatorial duties despite the attacks against her, particularly those linking her to illegal drugs.
A GMA News Online report on July 21 quoted her saying, “You will be frustrated. While I have been patient with all the attacks, I will never be intimidated. Rather, I will remain steadfast in fulfilling my sworn duty as Senator to uphold the Constitution and human rights.”
As a part of that duty, de Lima filed Senate Resolution 9 on July 13 to urge the Senate to investigate the extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected drug users and pushers.
To clarify things, de Lima is not resigning, is not thinking of resigning, and is pushing through with her duties as a Senator.
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