Sen. Leila De Lima took exception to the role played by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the recently-concluded 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Manila, calling it an “oddity” and “in clear violation of diplomatic protocols.”

“More than [blogger Sass Rogando] Sassot [sic], the other oddity during the Asean Summit is the curious role given by the Duterte administration to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, from her hosting Asean delegates in the absence of Duterte, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, to speaking before the Asean Business and Investment Summit, where she extolled the coming of the Chinese era where China purportedly will lay down its own rules as the new world leader,” the senator said in a statement.

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“It appears that in lieu of the duly-elected Vice President Leni Robredo, who was sidelined by the administration from the Asean events, the government chose in her stead former President Arroyo, for reasons only [Foreign] Secretary [Alan Peter] Cayetano and the protocol officers of the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] could fathom,” she added.

De Lima alleged that the former president’s role roots back to her ties with Duterte.

According to the senator, Arroyo is “known to be instrumental in the 2016 electoral victory of Duterte, and in exchange, the political conditions were set for the premature dismissal of her plunder indictment by her own Supreme Court appointees.”

De Lima was referring to the April 18 decision of the Supreme Court dismissing Arroyo’s plunder case at the Sandiganbayan due to alleged misuse of P366-million fund from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

“The payback does not seem to end anytime soon, as the former President with a checkered record of corruption, plunder, and – like Duterte – selling off the country to China in graft-ridden deals and lopsided joint exploration schemes in the Spratlys, continues to figure prominently in this administration, even ushered to take the place of the Vice President in clear violation of diplomatic protocols,” De Lima added.

The senator also accused Duterte and Arroyo of not just launching “vengeance” against her, but also of having an “alliance” – “and it all points to China.”

“Already the Duterte administration is tying up Filipinos to a future of financial indebtedness to China for infrastructure loans, while Arroyo drumbeats China’s hegemonic role not only in the Philippines, but in the whole world,” De Lima said.

She pointed out that the Arroyo administration had an allegedly anomalous NBN-ZTE infrastructure deal with a Chinese telecommunications company.

“Loaning our future to China, as avidly endorsed by Duterte and Arroyo, is not the way forward. It is the path to national suicide,” De Lima said. /atm

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