Reward for Dayan’s arrest raised to P200,000

URBIZTONDO, Pangasinan, Philippines – The reward for information that would lead to the arrest of Ronnie Dayan, the controversial former driver and alleged lover of Sen. Leila de Lima, was increased after a businessman pledged to double the original amount.

Senior Supt. Ronald Lee, acting police director of Pangasinan, told The STAR yesterday that the reward for Dayan’s arrest is now P200,000.

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) earlier committed P100,000 after the House of Representatives’ committee on justice cited the driver for contempt and issued an arrest warrant against him for snubbing a congressional inquiry on the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa.

Lee said the businessman who made the latest pledge is from Pangasinan.

The businessman, who requested anonymity, said he merely wanted to help locate Dayan to know the truth about his participation in the drug trade in the NBP.

“It’s good if there would be more who would add to the reward so that our hunt for him would be faster,” Lee said.

He said the police manhunt for Dayan is unrelenting, although the raids conducted on several of his houses in Barangay Galarin in Urbiztondo last Tuesday came up empty for illegal guns.

The search was conducted after presiding Judge Hermogenes Fernandez of the Regional Trial Court Branch 56 in San Carlos City, Pangasinan issued a warrant.

Joint police operatives from the provincial office, Urbiztondo police, Provincial Public Safety Command and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group raided the houses of Dayan and his relatives.

Lee said the relatives were expecting the raid.

He added that Dayan’s relatives had apparently prepared for it so the raid turned out negative.

He said Dayan has two cousins who are policemen and have legal advisers who might have alerted them.

“We will still look for him. Our efforts are unrelenting and we continuously coordinate with other units for his arrest,” Lee said, adding that Dayan is still in the Philippines.

Lee said they conducted a records check of Dayan’s guns as there were previous reports he was spotted carrying high-powered firearms and had been involved in the illegal discharge of guns when he was working with then justice secretary De Lima.

He said Dayan’s wife and his relatives said they have no more communication with him.

“But of course that’s their contention but we do not believe them,” Lee said.

Meawnhile, Chief Insp. Joshua Maximo, Urbiztondo police chief, said Dayan’s wife opened their orange bungalow house while his sister, barangay kagawad Elmita Torreta, accompanied the police to search Dayan’s white house which is bigger.

The other houses were included in the search following reports that they were coddling Dayan, Maximo said.

“He has guns, both low-powered and high powered like M16 rifle, caliber .45 and 9mm, but their licenses have expired,” he added.

Right now the police are clueless on Dayan’s whereabouts and his relatives insist they have no communication with him.

Dayan and De Lima used to come to Galarin and reportedly stayed in his white house for weekend vacations when the senator was still justice secretary, local residents and his relatives said. 

Not back yet

Former Department of Justice (DOJ) undersecretary Francisco Baraan, who was also implicated in the alleged drug trade inside NBP, has not returned to the Philippines despite his scheduled arrival from a trip abroad.

DOJ undersecretary Erickson Balmes told reporters yesterday that Baraan has not come home from his trip in the United States.

“As per verification with BI (Bureau of Immigration), former DOJ undersecretary Baraan is supposed to return to the Philippines from his United States trip on Oct. 23, 2016, to date he has not returned to the Philippines,” Balmes said.