DAYAN: I MET KERWIN 5 TIMES
‘Bagman’ Dayan’s testimony doesn’t corroborate some of the claims of ‘drug lord’ Espinosa
Alleged Senator de Lima’s bagman denies receiving money from ex-Bucor official
RONNIE Dayan, the supposed bagman of Sen. Leila de Lima, yesterday said he received money from Eastern Visayas drug lord Kerwin Espinosa “five times.”
“I received money from Kerwin Espinosa for de Lima,” Dayan told the congressmen in the continuation of the house inquiry on drug proliferation yesterday.
Dayan, the former close-in security aide of de Lima recounted that he had accepted money from Espinosa, whom Dayan then identified as “engineer,” not a drug lord.
“Around five times. The money that I received was placed in a small paper bag. I did not count the money and Kerwin did not tell how much. He just said, ‘this is for ma’am.’”
According to Dayan, all his meetings with Espinosa happened in 2014 in the months of August, October, and thrice in November.
Dayan said the last time he accepted money from Espinosa was on Nov. 22, 2014 in Baguio City.
“The first four encounters I had with Kerwin was at Mall of Asia and the fifth time was in Baguio.”
Dayan told the House committee on justice that the money, which he did not even count, went straight to de Lima.
“I turned this (money) over to ma’am as soon as we got to the house, in her room. That’s automatic. Transactions that we can say secret, I no longer take them (money) to the office but to her house instead” he said.
The testimony of Dayan, however, do not corroborate some of the claims of Espinosa, who appeared in the Senate hearing yesterday.
According to Espinosa, the Baguio meeting was held in November 2015.
He also said he met Dayan at Burnham Park, contrary to the claims of Dayan that they met at Alexandra hotel where Espinosa was staying.
In a related development, Dayan denied receiving money from former Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos.
According to Dayan, he first met Ragos when the latter was still with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“He used me as the bridge to help him convince ma’am [de Lima] for his promotion,” he said.
Earlier, Ragos said he handed over money to Dayan in two occasions: P5 million on Nov. 24, 2012 and another P5 million on Dec. 15, 2012 in de Lima’s residence in Parañaque City.
Ragos said the money is intended for the then-justice secretary. Dayan for his part denied receiving such. “Sir Ragos’ story that I received P3 million, P5 million and 1.6 million cash was not true. I haven’t received from Sir Ragos the huge amount of money,” he said.
However, Dayan said he saw Ragos handing over an envelope to de Lima twice but he is not aware of what was inside the envelope.
“On the first incident, I saw him (Ragos) giving an envelope to ma’am. I would not know if money was inside the envelope,” he said.
“On the second, it was a plastic na bag that contained what looked like a box of shoes but I did not know the content. I just saw that Ragos gave the plastic bag to Secretary de Lima,” Dayan added.