Dayan presented as witness, maintains De Lima not involved in drug trade

Published May 13, 2022 05:58 PM By JOAHNA LEI CASILAO,GMA News

The former driver and bodyguard of detained Senator Leila de Lima, Ronnie Dayan, maintained before a Muntinlupa court on Friday that de Lima was not involved in the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison.

Dayan previously said that his earlier statements in which he claimed to have transported illegal drug money for de Lima were made “under duress” and without the benefit of counsel

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“Dayan confirmed his judicial affidavit which provides, in capsule, that… no delivery of drug money was done to Sen. Leila,” lawyer Rolly Francis Peoro, de Lima’s legal counsel, told GMA News Online.

“Dayan’s testimony in Congress in 2016 was not true, due to force, and done without the assistance of a counsel of his own choice, and Dayan had no transactions with any of the Bilibid inmates,” he added.

According to Peoro, Dayan named the late Congressman Rey Umali as the one who had pushed him to agree with the story of confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.

When asked how they plan to corroborate Dayan’s statement given that Umali passed away in January 2021, Peoro said they have no way of doing so.

“But this is all consistent with the testimony of Kerwin Espinosa, Rafael Ragos and now Ronnie Dayan na different members of the government are doing their part to coerce the witnesses against Senator Leila de Lima,” he said in a separate interview.

Peoro was confident that their bail motion would be granted, at the very least, given the recantation and testimony of Dayan.

He said the prosecution had started its cross-examination and Dayan would again testify on June 17.

For her part, de Lima thanked the public for their support. This is de Lima’s first public appearance since losing her Senate reelection bid.

“Salamat po sa suporta. Salamat sa dasal. Magdasal tayo lagi. Magdasal tayo lagi para sa ating bayan,” de Lima said at hte Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court.

Espinosa and former Bureau of Corrections official Rafael Ragos have retracted their drug allegations against De Lima. Both had apologized to the senator.

Following this, De Lima asked Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to review the “trumped-up” drug charges filed against her by the Department of Justice.

De Lima is currently in 23rd place in the Senate race with 7,224,491 votes based on partial and unofficial results. — DVM, GMA News

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