Ronnie Dayan still not off the hook —Umali

Despite the impending completion of a House of Representatives' probe on the alleged proliferation of drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison, Sen. Leila de Lima's former driver-bodyguard Ronnie Dayan, who remains missing despite an arrest warrant against him, is still not yet off the hook.

The House justice and human rights committee, which is conducting the probe, earlier finished conducting hearings and is set to come out with its findings this coming week. Despite repeatedly being linked into the mess and eventually being summoned by the panel, Dayan's whereabouts, however, remained unknown.

Panel chair Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, however, said that does not mean the House of Representatives would stop going after Dayan, who was accused by several Bilibid inmate-witnesses as the one collecting drug money for De Lima.

Dayan was also alleged to have had a romantic relationship with the then Justice secretary, something which De Lima had kept mum about.

"There are continuing investigations to be conducted by the House of Representatives for which his testimony will be necessary," Umali said in a radio dzBB interview on Sunday.

The congressman said even if the House probe has already ended, there are still "a lot of things that he can answer for out of the subpoena issued by the House," especially on matters about correctional reforms and graft and corruption in government.

Umali said sub-committees would still be conducting more hearings and investigations on issues affecting the NBP, in which Dayan's testimony would still be necessary.

The congressman said Dayan remains "answerable to the House of the Representatives, not to the justice committee only" since the subpoena against him was issued by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

"There is a continuing need for answers that we want to get from him through the justice committee," Umali said.

The members of the House justice committee had voted to hold Dayan in contempt after it repeatedly failed to attend the House probe.

Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said that during one of the hearings, they moved to cite Dayan in contempt. He also moved that Dayan be given a chance to explain his failure to appear despite notices.

“Now, we are in receipt, we already have a return of the show cause order that was duly received by Paul Edward Dayan on October 8 directing him, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan, to explain in writing within 24 hours from receipt why he should not be held in contempt pursuant to our rules,” he said.

Fariñas said that since the hearing has been televised and Dayan has been duly informed of the invitation for him to attend and he still failed to do so, “it is obvious that Dayan refuses without any justifiable excuse to heed the summons subpoena duly sent by the Speaker.” —ALG, GMA News