De Lima got P8M through Dayan–Kerwin

De Lima got P8M through Dayan– Kerwin

Sen. Leila de Lima declines to question Kerwin Espinosa, says, “May God forgive you for all your sins and may God forgive you for all your lies about me”

KERWIN Espinosa claimed on Wednesday that he helped fund the campaign of Sen. Leila de Lima by giving her around P8 million sourced from his illegal drug proceeds.

He told senators that he was contacted in 2015 by Ronnie Dayan, the former driver, bodyguard and lover of de Lima, to ask for financial help, in exchange for his protection.

Before dealing with Dayan, Espinosa said, he consulted Pe- ter Co, a convicted drug lord who was his supplier of illegal drugs.

“Yung sagot ni Peter sa akin, ‘OK pare, walang problema sa kanila basta itago mo lang (Pe-

ter told me, ‘ That’s OK, as long as you keep it a secret),’” Espinosa said, reading his affidavit.

A Senate committee is investigating the death of Espinosa’s father while he was detained in a provincial jail in Leyte last Nov. 5. The Lower House is conducting a separate inquiry on allegations about an illegal drug network that operated inside a maximum-security prison in Muntinlupa while De Lima was justice secretary.

Espinosa said in yester- day’s hearing that Dayan initially asked for P2 million per month in payola, but he told him he couldn’t afford that. In the end, they both agreed to P700,000 monthly, instead.

Espinosa, whom Interpol arrested in Abu Dhabi less than a month before his father’s fatal shooting, also claimed that he personally handed over the money to Dayan on several instances.

When it was her turn to question Espinosa, De Lima refused and said it would be “pointless, useless and futile.”

“Let me say this to my colleagues here, and everyone in this hall, and to everyone listening and watching these proceedings. I say this to you: I categorically, firmly, and absolutely deny having known Mr. Kerwin Espinosa,” she said.

“I categorically, firmly, and absolutely deny having received any money, any cash from Mr. Kerwin Espinosa, either directly or indirectly through anyone else, in any occasion at any time, whether that money is supposedly for either protection or fundraising for campaign expenses,” De Lima added.

De Lima said she believes that Espinosa’s affidavit was made at gunpoint and under pressure from government officials.

“May God forgive you for all your sins and may God forgive you for all your lies about me,” she told Espinosa.

“And I forgive you,” she added.