SEN. LEILA M. DE LIMA'S STATEMENT ON RONNIE DAYAN'S APPEARANCE BEFORE THE HOUSE PROBE

I did not watch the entirety of my public hanging. It's a spectacle that diverts us from more important national issues, and I don't believe I am one. But soon, I will face my detractors. The glaring inconsistencies of statements from all "witnesses" in the House inquiry to this Bilibid Prison drug trade conspiracy speak for itself.

I refuse to indulge my accusers by addressing their web of lies and desperate attempts to implicate me as a corrupt public servant.

As a woman, it breaks my heart that my private life and personal relationship have become subject of the public and Congress' ridicule.

No woman, whoever or whatever she may be, whether a sitting senator or a humble secretary, deserves to be betrayed, to be treated with so much disrespect and without dignity, before the public eye, by any man she is with or had a relationship with.

It is a shame that those I trusted fell into the trap of power, deceit, fear and intimidation that they found it necessary to lie and twist truths to save themselves.