De Lima lying through her teeth – Duterte

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President Duterte yesterday pointed to the driver of Sen. Leila de Lima as her link to the drug lords detained at the national penitentiary.

He accused De Lima of “lying through her teeth” when she denied any involvement in illegal drugs and even claimed that her affair with her married driver paved way to irregularities in the national penitentiary.

“She is lying through her teeth…You know in all of her answers, she was only telling about drugs, now she denied there are leads about drugs but she never said true or false about the driver. And the driver is the connect. Everyone inside (the penitentiary) were talking about the driver,” he added.  

De Lima earlier denied the President’s allegations in naming her as the lady government official who has connections with drug convicts at the National Bilibid Prison (NBP).

De Lima swore she is willing to get shot in front of the President if there is credible evidence against her. 

De Lima, however, warned Duterte might “lose face” for lack of evidence to support his allegations.

Duterte shot back and maintained he has more than enough evidence to pin down De Lima and her former driver, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan, whom he said was also her lover.

Duterte described the alleged relationship as “immoral” because the driver has a family and wife.

The President said Dayan acted as De Lima’s bagman in receiving supposed payoffs from the convicted drug lords when she was justice secretary. 

“What is really very crucial there is the fact that the relationship with her driver … gave rise to the corruption that was happening inside the national penitentiary,” Duterte said during a press conference held before dawn yesterday.

Duterte said if he is proven wrong in his allegations against De Lima, he is ready to step down from office.

“I’ve been telling the congressmen, if I am lying… I said you can impeach me,” he said.

Duterte justified his having to implicate Dayan, saying he served as the link to the drug lords in the NBP.

He said Dayan lorded it over and appeared to have manipulated the illegal drug transactions in the national penitentiary. 

“The crux of the matter is if I do not talk about that relationship with De Lima to her driver then there is no topic to talk about,” Duterte said. 

Duterte claimed that during De Lima’s stint as justice secretary, special privileges were extended to “almost all” of the inmates.

“Are you not surprised that during her term and for a longer period … there were special privileges granted to almost all inmates? There were guns. There were parties held almost every night. There was a combo, a musical group, liquor and alcoholic drinks flowed freely and women went inside and out the prison,” he said.

Duterte accused De Lima of authorizing Dayan in allowing illegal activities inside the NBP.

“If I do not mention the connect between the senator … and her driver, how would I explain to the public the state that these things that happened: the partying, drugs and even cooking shabu, that went unbridled, unhampered?” he said.

“Would you think that a driver of a Department of Justice employee could have allowed these things all by himself? All of these could have only happened if there was a go signal from the head of the department,” Duterte said.

De Lima had said Dayan went into hiding because he is afraid to come out and might be used as state witness against her. 

Duterte however said it is either De Lima or Dayan who is afraid.

“There is a psychological explanation to it, it is just like saying that I’ll be forced to tell the truth – although forced but still the truth. That’s the problem,” the President said, otherwise, they may be fearful of having to lie. “So which is which?” 

A diversion

De Lima claimed the allegations of illicit relationship and links to illegal drugs activities were meant to divert the public from the real issue of summary killings.

She admitted to still having communication with Dayan, her driver-bodyguard since she began working as a private election lawyer but who resigned early last year.

“He (Dayan) became close to me but how close –pardon me – I don’t want to touch on that first because that’s a personal matter and again, I don’t want this issue (extrajudicial killings) to be diverted by personal matters,” De Lima said.

De Lima, who chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights, is scheduled to preside over the inquiry on extrajudicial killings today amid what she said are attempts to cow her into cancelling the investigation.

According to De Lima, she received a call from Dayan apparently in panic and despair some weeks ago seeking her help as apparently he had been warned by some friends in the police that he was being hunted by unnamed individuals.

Dayan told De Lima that his friends warned him he could be abducted and be forced to testify against her or that his house in Pangasinan would be raided and be framed with illegal possession of firearms. – With Alexis Romero, Paolo Romero