Drama reaches climax
THE drama that is the congressional investigation into the illegal drug trade involving alleged big-time drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and Sen. Leila de Lima is reaching its climax or denouement with Espinosa's return to the country after his arrest in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and the capture (was it a surrender?) of de Lima's former driver and lover Ronnie Dayan in La Union.
Kerwin returned less than three weeks after his father, Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa was killed allegedly in a shootout with elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 8 inside a jail in Baybay City in Leyte. His testimony in a Senate hearing yesterday caps the story of the Espinosas in relation to the drive by the government against the illegal drug trade.
Dayan was arrested (again, did he actually surrender?) after probes into the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison produced a number of witnesses consisting of high-profile Bilibid inmates and the Espinosas tagged de Lima as one of the illegal drug trade's protectors. It also happened a few days after de Lima admitted she did have a relationship with Dayan “for a few years” (Dayan said it lasted seven years).
Kerwin's testimony during yesterday's Senate hearing gave him a chance to confront the officers of the police unit that killed his father even as he claimed having given de Lima protection money in a hearing that de Lima herself attended. There was not much fireworks there because the senator chose not to ask questions although she denied all the allegations Kerwin hurled at her.
It will be Dayan's turn to testify, this time in the investigation conducted by the House of Representatives. In the Senate hearing, it was obvious the senators were holding back in going into the details of Kerwin's claim of giving protection money to de Lima. In Dayan's case, however, the congressmen will have to include questions about his relationship with de Lima because it is relevant to the case.
In a play, the denouement draws together the strands of the plot to resolve it. In the case of the House probe, however, the hope is that as the congressmen tie together the strands on Dayan's relationship with de Lima, they would do it on the level and without being vulgar, focusing less on the personal and more on the illegal drug trade.