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Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug. 19
Philippines’ maverick president Rodrigo Duterte has declared a new war of words against Senator Leila de Lima, whom he accused of being an “immoral” woman with a “very sordid personal and official life” and linked to the illegal drug trade.
“If you are bent on destroying me, please have the decency to spare my colleagues, friends, and family. They have done you no wrong,” de Lima replied, in comments appearing on today’s front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The newspaper however notes that de Lima stopped short of categorically denying Duterte’s accusations against her, namely that she used her driver and alleged lover to collect payoffs from convicted drug lords. “I will not fight, I will not put up a fight against the president. First of all, I don’t know what I have done wrong against him,” she said, accusing the president of “abuse and misuse of executive power.”
