The Senate held Ronnie Dayan in custody after citing him in contempt for inconsistencies in statements during the Senate probe on Mayor Rolando Espinosa’s killing.
Senator Leila de Lima’s former driver, bodyguard and self-confessed lover, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan, is currently under the custody of the Philippine Senate after citing him in contempt for inconsistencies in his statements during the Senate inquiry on Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa’s killing.
Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao filed a motion to cite Dayan in contempt after the driver insisted that the only drug lord that he had dealt with was the son of the slain chief executive, Kerwin Espinosa, the alleged bigtime drug dealer in Eastern Visayas.
But the members of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, headed by Senator Panfilo Lacson, were not convinced, not only on that particular statement of Dayan, but also on some details, where his and Kerwin’s accounts did not match.
The panel tried to press Dayan for more information on the alleged link between De Lima and Kerwin, who were both in attendance on the hearing, which lasted for about six hours.
Committee Chairman Lacson, along with Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Senators Richard Gordon and Pacquiao grilled Dayan on his testimony, which a majority conformed with that of Kerwin, except on the year when De Lima allegedly received drug money to finance her campaign to the Senate.
According to son Espinosa, he met Dayan at least thrice from August 2015 to February 2016 and handed him a total of P8 million for De Lima in exchange of protection. He also claimed to have met with De Lima, who was then Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ), at Burnham Park in Baguio City in November 2015.
Ronnie conformed with the details except that he claimed in happened a year earlier and not in 2015.
Because both Espinosa and Dayan stood by their claims, the Senators found it hard to reconcile the details but in between the two, they believe that the former lover of seven years of the lady Senator is the one who tells lies.