MANILA – Malacañang on Friday assured Senator Leila de Lima of her safety following her arrest on drug charges.

De Lima, who is accused of receiving money from detained crime lords to fund her 2016 campaign, will be “treated with fairness and accorded due process,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

“She will have the opportunity to defend herself and prove her innocence. The court has established probable cause therefore, let us keep our faith in the judicial system. The moral arc is long but it always bends towards justice,” Abella said in a statement.

Abella reiterated similar assurances from Director General Ronald dela Rosa of the Philippine National Police. De Lima will be detained at police general headquarters in Camp Crame.

De Lima said her arrest was President Rodrigo Duterte's way of silencing critics of his intensified campaign against illegal drugs that has killed at least 7,000 people in eight months.

She said Duterte has had a "fixation for revenge" against her after she investigated alleged death squads in Davao City, when she was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights and Duterte was mayor.