PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin M. Andanar denounced a US Senate committee resolution urging the Philippine governmentto release Sen. Leila M. de Lima and drop the charges against Rappler Executive Editor Maria A. Ressa, calling such a move as “impudent.”

“We find the passage of U.S. Senate Resolution 142 by the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee highly impudent,” Mr. Andanar said on Friday.

“To try to strong-arm the government into freeing Senator De Lima and dropping charges against Maria Ressa is infringing on our country's legal process and system, to which they have no say whatsoever,” he said.

The secretary pointed out that the cases against the two are undergoing the country’s independent judicial process.

Mr. Andanar said they see a “pattern” wherein Ms. De Lima and Ms. Ressa appear to be lobbying their case before the media and the US legislature “because they know that here, there is no merit to their claims.”

“We continue our good relations with the United States and our independent foreign policy. But, the government sees no point to give attention to an ostensible move by people who have little knowledge of the real matter at hand,” Mr. Andanar said.

In the resolution, the foreign relations committee said Ms. De Lima, a staunch critic of the administration’s war on drugs and has been detained since February 2017 over drug charges, was detained “solely on account of her political views and the legitimate excercise of her freedom of expression.”

The committee also said that the cases against Ms. Ressa, who is also critical of the administration, for cyber-libel and tax evasion charges is part of a pattern of “weaponizing rule of law to repress independent media.”

The Senate committee also asked President Donald Trump to sanction enforcers and Philippine officials liable for killings on the war on drugs and the arrest of Ms. De Lima, including revoking their US visas and freezing their assets in the US.– Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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