De Lima told: 'When they go low, we go high'

MANILA – Former Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda had nothing but comforting words for Senator Leila de Lima, subject of the latest tirades of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte on Wednesday accused De Lima of having had an illicit affair with her married driver, who allegedly received drug money on the senator's behalf.

De Lima fired back at the Duterte, saying the president was abusing and misusing his executive power and presidential immunity by issuing such a ''foul'' tirade.

In his open letter which he posted on his Facebook page, Lacierda told De Lima to ''keep strong, just do your job."

Quoting United States First Lady Michelle Obama, Lacierda also reminded De Lima that ''when they go low, we go high."

Lacierda also said De Lima should remember the words of the late Prime Minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher: "I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

Lacierda said, under Duterte, ''change has come, where women are insulted, or threatened or made a subject of personal canard."

''I wonder if this is the attitude that we will accord our womenfolk from hereon. I wonder if our fellow countrymen would approve disrespect to women or again justify this as his demeanor,'' he said.

Lacierda noted that Duterte's tirades against De Lima was not the first time the president demonstrated a ''vacuum of respect."

''It has been uttered regarding a dead female Australian missionary, to the female presiding Chief Justice, and now to you, a sitting female Senator of the Republic,'' he said.

The Liberal Party has taken up the cudgels for De Lima, saying that the senator deserved public support for raising the alarm over the hundreds of deaths linked to the war on illegal drugs.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, a Liberal Party ally, also called out Duterte for his ''misogynistic'' remarks against de Lima.