Ombudsman junks bribery raps vs. De Lima, ex-bodyguard

The Office of the Ombudsman has junked the direct and indirect bribery charges against former Senator Leila de Lima and ex-bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, for lack of probable cause.

In a nine-page resolution, the Ombudsman said it found inconsistencies on the testimonies of self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, Ram-Jhon Michael Espinosa and Marcelo Adorco as to how the bribe was given and the supposed meeting with De Lima in Baguio City.

“After a painstaking review of the records, it appears that there is no probable cause to indict the respondents of the charges against them,” it said.

“Taken in isolation, the testimonies the complainant had presented may appear to espouse a well-generated belief that the respondents had indeed collected bribe money from Kerwin. However, when these statements are read together, glaring inconsistencies become apparent,” it added.

The case stemmed from an alleged conspiracy between De Lima and Dayan to extort money from Espinosa in exchange for the latter’s illegal drugs operations.

It can be recalled that in a series of Senate hearings in 2016, Espinosa testified that de Lima was part of the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as Justice Secretary under the administration of late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Espinosa further accused De Lima of receiving a total of P8 million from him for her senatorial campaign through Dayan.

Last April, Espinosa, however, retracted his accusations against De Lima and said in a counter-affidavit that he was “only coerced, pressured, intimidated, and seriously threatened by the police” to make his previous statements.

In a four-page counter-affidavit, Adorco also said he was forced to sign his affidavit for fear for his life and safety while at the Albuera Police Station in 2016.

According to Adorco, the affidavit was made by a police officer at the Albuera Police Station under the orders of Police Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido.

He said the affidavit was made after he and his companions were arrested in a buy-bust operation in July 2016.

The Ombudsman also doubted why Espinosa would give P8 million without meeting De Lima.

“In particular, Kerwin and Adorco’s statements were inconsistent on how the alleged P8 million bribe money was delivered, the sequence of tranches of delivery, and, more importantly, whether De Lima was ever there to directly receive the money from Kerwin,” it said.

“Failing to provide a semblance of clarity on these crucial details, it would be difficult to excite in a reasonable mind a well-founded belief that the respondents had received money from Kerwin in exchange of ‘protection for the latter’s illicit drug trade’” it added.

The Ombudsman further said, “a reasonable mind cannot be faulted if it finds skepticism in the fact that Kerwin would give substantial amounts of money as bribe to Dayan without having met or at least had confirmed with De Lima that Dayan was in fact her emissary.”—LDF, GMA News