(UPDATE 2) MANILA - A very emotional Senator Leila De Lima on Wednesday appeared to have reached her breaking point, lashing out at critics and even daring President Rodrigo Duterte to just have her arrested.

"Inosente po ako. Tama na, nagkakamali kayo. Kung anu-ano [na] iniimbento ninyo," De Lima said at a press conference at the Senate.

[I am innocent. So please stop, you are all wrong. You are just inventing things against me.]

"Hulihin na ninyo ako ngayon, iyan naman talaga gusto ninyo. Ikulong na ninyo ako ngayon [Just have me arrested now, that's what you really want. Just put me in jail.]," she added.

She hit critics for insinuating that she was behind the riot that killed a high-profile inmate and hurt others who could have allegedly linked her to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison. De Lima was reacting to reports that she supposedly plotted to silence crime kingpin Jaybee Sebastian.

• READ: Crime lord killed, 3 others hurt in Bilibid stabbing incident

"Masyado na nila akong ginigipit. Inaapi tapos ganyan. Lahat na lang sinisisi nila sa akin and they call themselves men? Ganyan ba ang lalaki? They're cowards, they're fools and they're liars," De Lima said.

Duterte has long accused De Lima of condoning the drug trade inside the national penitentiary while she was justice secretary. Some inmates have also testified in Congress that she received millions in drug payoffs.

On Monday, the President even said that he's confident De Lima would eventually go to jail.

But De Lima reiterated that these witnesses were just being pressured, even tortured, to testify against her.

She said she wouldn't be surprised if the riot that ensued inside the prison on Wednesday was the administration's way of sending a message to inmates who refuse to implicate her in the drug trade.

"Absent any other reliable information, I'm not discounting the fact that this is another way of the government [of] persuading the Bilibid 19 to testify against me and that this incident should serve as a lesson to those who refuse to cooperate with the government and do Aguirre's and Malacanang's bidding," she said.

De Lima also cited information allegedly from the wife of Sebastian that her husband was being pressured into testifying against the former justice secretary.

"These prisoners are supposed to be under the government's protection [and] to threaten them with violence and murder simply because they refuse to be used in the ongoing House hearing is the height of mafia tactics and gangster style operations that makes this government worse than a narco state, it makes this government an assassin state," she added.

'DUTERTE BEING FED LIES'

De Lima also called out the drug matrix that had initially linked her to the issue. On Tuesday, Duterte apologized for errors in the matrix, although insisting De Lima was still involved in the drug trade.

• READ: Duterte 'sorry' for errors in drug matrix

"President Duterte's apology is a clear admission that there is really nothing in that ridiculous drug matrix that links me to the drug trade," she said.

De Lima also said that this casts doubt on the information being used by police in its war on drugs.

"It is tragic that the highest official of the land is not only being fed lies and wrong information but also has listened to rumors and intrigues," she said.

"Sana makinig na po ang pangulo, wag po ninyo ako sisisihin later tapos it all blows up on your face na," she added.