Be fair to Ronnie – De Lima
Sen. Leila de Lima yesterday appealed to the Philippine National Police (PNP) not to mistreat her erstwhile lover Ronnie Dayan following his arrest in a remote village in San Juan, La Union after months of hiding from the authorities.
“With Dayan’s arrest, I’m hopeful for fair treatment for him by the authorities,” De Lima said in a statement hours after the arrest was announced.
“The same is my call to the President for others who will testify against him, like Kerwin Espinosa,” she said, referring to the alleged drug lord and son and namesake of the late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., now in the custody of the PNP.
“I’m the one you want. Please don’t torment them – be they criminals or not,” she added.
De Lima left the Senate premises shortly after the news of Dayan’s arrest broke out. She declined to talk to reporters, who followed her up to her vehicle.
Sources close to the senator said she was in tears when she learned about Dayan’s arrest.
Dayan served as her driver and bodyguard.
De Lima earlier admitted in a television interview that she had an affair with Dayan for a few years but they broke up last year or shortly before she ran for the Senate.
When Dayan went into hiding shortly after the House of Representatives declared him in contempt for refusing summons to appear before the congressional inquiry into the drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), De Lima made a general appeal that he should not be harmed.
Dayan has been tagged by no less than President Duterte as De Lima’s bagman in collecting money from drug convicts at the NBP to bankroll her senatorial campaign.
De Lima said it was widely known that Duterte was digging up her personal life, including her admitted relationship with Dayan, to make the public believe that he acted as her bagman.
“I’m ready to face any court to prove that all these allegations against me are not true,” she said, as she reiterated that she did not receive a single centavo from illegal drugs.
De Lima said all her life, especially when she entered government service, she has not benefitted from any illegal transaction as she will never betray the public’s trust.
“Please don’t make any more drama to discredit me. Just file cases against me before courts and I’ll face you there,” she said. Face-off
De Lima also declared she is ready to face Kerwin, who is expected to name her as one of the many recipients of drug money at the resumption of the Senate inquiry today.
The committee on public order and dangerous drugs chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson will hold its second hearing on the killing of Kerwin’s father.
“As of now, I’ve no intention of asking him (Kerwin) questions. I’ll just listen to him because it’s really a no-brainer, let’s not fool ourselves, it’s expected, he’ll point to me (as his protector in the drug trade),” De Lima told reporters.
She claimed the late Espinosa, as well the convicts in the NBP, were made to issue affidavits naming her as receiving drug money to bankroll her senatorial campaign in the last elections.
“So this (Kerwin testifying) is part of their grand plan, that anything about drugs will be linked to Senator Leila de Lima, because our President branded me as the leading narco-politician in this country,” she said.
De Lima reiterated that many of those linked to or are known associates of witnesses who testified against her in the Senate and in the House of Representatives where either threatened, harmed or killed.
De Lima said she was preparing herself to face Kerwin amid efforts from her staff and friends to dissuade her from attending the hearing.
“I just hope that my colleagues in the committee, especially during (today’s) hearing, would conduct themselves in a professional manner. I hope they won’t add to my Calvary. There might be others who want to embarrass me,” she said.