United States President Donald Trump has recently signed their 2020 national budget which includes a provision banning the entry of Philippine government officials responsible on Senator Leila De Lima’s detention.
The provision was specifically contained in the 2020 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill which was signed last Friday.
“The Secretary of State shall apply subsection to foreign government officials about whom the Secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of: (1) Mustafa Kassem, an American citizen imprisoned by the Government of Egypt and whose health is failing; and (2) Senator Leila De Lima, who was arrested in the Philippines in 2017,” the provision stated.
The ban on government officials was proposed by US Senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy.
“My gratitude to the US Congress is overwhelming for including in the final and approved Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2020, now signed into law by the US President, the provision restricting the travel to the US of those responsible for and party to my persecution and imprisonment, or the Durbin/Leahy amendment,” De Lima said in a statement.
In a press release in October, De Lima said that the officials who were responsible on her detention were President Rodrigo Duterte, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, Mocha Uson, Sass Rogando Sasot, and RJ Nieto, who De Lima claimed were part of a “a daily public media demolition.”
De Lima also named lawmakers in the House of Representatives who were part of a probe against her.
Former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, Solicitor General Jose Calida, Public Attorney Office Chief Persida Acosta, Sandra Cam, Dante Jimenez, and Congressmen Rey Umali and Rudy Fariñas were part of De Lima’s list.
