De Lima spiel an outright insult to the Filipina

We can only commiserate with the beleaguered Sen. Leila De Lima. In an apparent and unrelenting public-relations effort to win over public sympathy, she may have buried herself deeper in the scandal she faces.

Her latest faux pas is her widely viewed, on-air confession that she had a long-running romantic affair with her driver-bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan.

What made that confession even more controversial was her attempt to justify the romantic affair by referring to it as “frailties of a woman.”

That epic remark is now the subject of an intense backlash, particularly in social media, and especially among women. This is a major blunder. If this came as an advice from a paid public-relations consultant, De Lima should fire that adviser immediately.

That “frailties of a woman” statement appears to be part of De Lima’s overall public sympathy strategy. She may have been advised to create the impression that she is the “David” fighting a “Goliath,” the latter being President Duterte. The theory is that public sympathy always goes to the “David” in a public confrontation.

The strategy appears to have backfired on De Lima. It looks like the public, particularly the women, are not about to buy the public relations line that she is “frail” – and that being “frail,” she succumbed to the strong temptations of a romantic affair most would frown upon.

“Frailties of a woman, my foot,” a disgusted blogger quipped.

Why that “frailties” spiel is not working for De Lima is understandable. After all, she had projected herself in public as someone who can hardly be described as frail.

It will be recalled that when she was justice secretary in the previous administration, she publicly criticized then Chief Justice Renato Corona. She testified against the latter in the impeachment court. She positioned herself as a champion of human rights who ate death threats for breakfast.

She branded herself as the chief nemesis of human-trafficking syndicates. She told the world that she did not fear the then-mayor of Davao City whom she publicly accused of using death squads in the war against drugs and criminality.

She even used her war against the Iglesia Ni Cristo as a launching pad for her bid to be given a slot in the Liberal Party senatorial slate.

Anyone who brands herself all of those things cannot, in the flick of finger, suddenly become “frail.”

De Lima was powerful. She wielded the influence and the prerogatives of a powerful office – that of the secretary of justice. She had the National Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Immigration, and the corps of the country’s prosecutors at her beck and call.

Any person who can do those cannot be described as “frail.”

Ironically, it was also at the height of her power that De Lima, based on her television interview, had that long-running affair with driver-bodyguard Dayan.

She now wants to describe those moments as taking place at a time when she was, as a woman, very frail and highly vulnerable.

While we would like to give her the benefit of the doubt, she must admit this is something the public cannot buy hook, line and sinker.

Worse, many now see that “frailties of a woman” line as the worst excuse for a frowned-upon romantic relationship. And, much worse, many women now find that spiel an outright insult to the Filipina.

The Filipina falls in love not as a result of frailty. When in love, she remains the master of herself, not a victim.

Was that “frailties of a woman” spiel intended by De Lima to justify her relationship with Dayan? If yes, then it did not work.

The only value of that televised confession is that it further raised suspicions about De Lima’s link to the dark underworld of illegal drugs. Dayan is still on the run, or at least, in hiding.

A P1-million bounty has already been offered by the non-governmental group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption for Dayan’s arrest.

Dayan was tagged by most witnesses in the congressional hearings as De Lima’s bagman in the alleged drug trade inside the National Penitentiary, which the senator allegedly allowed and protected while she was justice secretary.

That he has not surfaced to face the allegations have reinforced notions that he is not innocent of whatever insinuations have been thrown against him and his erstwhile boss-cum-object of affection.

We recommend that De Lima now junk that “weak woman” communications strategy. It did not get the results she may have hoped for.

The best she can do now is to make her long-running war against the President a legal one.

She has a better chance using legal arguments. The appeal to the public’s emotion had miserably failed to do the job.