Driver vocal about De Lima being his ‘financier’ –witness

A witness on Tuesday testified before lawmakers how some inmates in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) became the cash cows of Senator Leila De Lima as well as her driver and bodyguard Ronnie Dayan when she was justice secretary.

Testifying before the House of Representatives' Committee on Justice, convicted kidnapper Rodolfo Magleo said that during De Lima's term as justice secretary, gang leaders in the NBP maximum security compound were compelled to remit to her through Dayan P50,000 a week.

Magleo said they began remitting money to Dayan about two weeks after he and four other gang leaders had an initial meeting with De Lima in mid-2011.

“After we had an initial meeting with Secretary De Lima, two weeks after we met, palaging nagte-text sa ‘min si Dayan…Sabi niya, ‘Kailangan namin ng tulong niyo sa panggastos sa opisina sa DOJ, as required by Secretary De Lima’,” Magleo recounted.

Magleo, a former police officer, said he and some other inmates were removed from their post as gang leaders after they failed to meet the P50,000 per week remittance requirement.

“Ang nabibigay lang namin pag pumupunta siya (Dayan) doon, ay P3,000 to P5,000 hindi pa aabot ng P10,000. Hindi nagtagal, matapos ang ilang buwan ay natanggal kami bilang inmate leaders,” Magleo said.

Magleo said big-time drug lords were giving higher commissions to De Lima amounting to millions of pesos.

Magleo said that drug lord Herbet Ampang Colangco alone used to remit P2 million to P3 million a month to De Lima.

“Milyones ang ibinibigay ni Herbert Colangco kay Secretary De Lima. I think P2 million to P3 million a month…at every concert niya (Colangco) nagbibigay pa siya ng P1 million kay De Lima,” he said.

Magleo said that during his first meeting with Dayan, the latter revealed to him that De Lima was his financier.

“We spoke in our local language, Pangalatok. Sabi niya, ‘Kabayan, si Secretary De Lima sa  May 2013 ay kakandidatong senador.’ Sabi ko, ‘Napaka swerte mo kabayan magiging bodyguard ka ng isang senador’,” Magleo recounted.

“Ang sagot niya, ‘Hindi ako magiging bodyguard, kabayan, sabi ni ma’am sa akin kakandidato akong mayor sa Urbiztondo, Pangasinan.’…Sabi niya, ‘Si ma’am ang gagastos para sa akin’” Magleo recounted further.

Magleo said Dayan even boasted about his “machismo” as his “capital.”

“At pinagmayabang pa niya, ‘Alam mo tayong mga pangalatok, macho tayo. Yan ang puhunan natin sa buhay’… At nagtawanan kami at nag-apir, your honor,” Magleo said.

Magleo said that while Dayan introduced himself as the chief escort and bodyguard of De Lima, he can sense that “there is something intimate” between the two.

“Wala ako nakita, pero I could read between the lines. I could sense it, na may something intimate,” Magleo said.

Asked by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre on what he meant by his statement, Magleo said there is something unusual with how Dayan was boasting about De Lima being his financier.

“Maliit lang sahod niya. Pero nagyabang siya, niyabangan niya ako na popondohan siya ni madam, so something is intimate, your honor,” Magleo said.

President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier alleged that Dayan was a lover of De Lima.  Duterte further alleged that the house of Dayan in Urbiztondo, Pangasinan was built out of the commissions of De Lima from the illegal drug trade in the NBP.

De Lima’s senatorial bid in 2013 did not push through, but Magleo said the former Justice Secretary, through high-profile druglord Jaybee Sebastian, continued collecting money from the inmates for the 2016 elections.

De Lima had repeatedly denied involvement in the illegal drug operations in the NBP. —KBK, GMA News