Duterte denies wanting De Lima: When I see the video, I lose my appetite

President Rodrigo Duterte had choice words for Senator Leila De Lima who earlier wondered whether the Chief Executive was interested in her romatically because he continued to threaten her legally and poked fun at her alleged love affairs.

"Susmaryosep. Alam mo every time I view the video, I lose my appetite. Nawawala ang gana ko sa kanya," Duterte said in an apparent reference to her supposed sex video.

As regards De Lima's appeal that the President stop harassing her, Duterte said the former secretary of justice and chair of the Commission on Human Rights, "should be worried."

"Those are serious charges. She should not adopt a nonchalant attitude about all of these things. Kasi I said she opened the portals of narco-politics to take hold in the national level. There will never be an honest election,"  Duterte said in a news conference.

Duterte then said that the country's drug situation was rather similar to the scenarios described in the books The Cartel by Don Winslow and Gangster Warlords by Ioan Grillo.

"You read the cartel, it’s online you can buy it. Ioan Grillo’s another one and you would recoil in horror because it is exactly what we are experiencing today," Duterte said.

Going back to De Lima's remark that he could be attracted to her, Duterte said, "Ang magkaron ng gusto sa kanya ‘yung mga, hindi man ako guwardiya, hindi man rin ako motorcycle cop. Hindi rin ako convict."

Duterte has alleged in the past that De Lima had romantic relationships with a bodyguard and a motorcycle security escort.

The recent House inquiry on the proliferation of drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison had one witness testifying that De Lima and a convict spent time together at his kubol or special cell. —NB, GMA News