Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan berated lawyer Jude Josue Sabio saying the ally turned rival was a “balimbing” (a turncoat) for withdrawing crimes against humanity case against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Lawyer Jude Josue Sabio on Tuesday withdrew the complaint he filed against Duterte in the ICC related to Duterte’s war on drugs.
Read: War on drugs Philippines: 5,552 drug personalities dead says PDEA
Sabio said on a 28-page sworn statement he would mail and submit personally to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that the complaint should be “set aside” and “trashed” because it is only part of the Liberal Party’s “political propaganda.”
Kiko Pangilinan says Sabio ‘has no credibility’ after turnaround in ICC case vs Duterte
Kiko Pangilinan, Duterte’s opposition Liberal Party president, lambasted Sabio’s move.
“No. 1, after his 180-degree turn, he has no credibility whatsoever. The public should reject this balimbing. He is lying, and he knows it,” Pangilinan said in a statement on Wednesday.
“No. 2, the bodies of thousands of EJK’d Filipinos is proof of a man-made disaster, if not mass murder as government policy, that the ICC is mandated to investigate and address,” he added. EJK means extrajudicial killing.
The senator also said that “instead of political attacks by the administration,” everyone should focus on helping thousands of Filipinos hit by series of natural disasters such as the Taal Volcano eruption, Christmas typhoon, and the successive earthquakes in Mindanao.
Pangilinan also cited OFWs trapped in the Middle East because of Iran and the US tension.
He also said people should get back the P11 billion budget for calamity fund realigned to intelligence fund amid the many calamities that the Filipino families are facing.