NBI: Ex-De Lima lover aided by powerful person in Luzon

Ronnie Dayan (RADYO INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA — The National Bureau of Investigation has warned people coddling Ronnie Dayan, an alleged bagman of drug protection money from traffickers inside the New Bilibid Prisons, that the government will arrest and prosecute them.

According to the bureau’s spokesman Ferdie Lavin, Dayan, a former boyfriend of Senator Leila de Lima and allegedly her collector of drug protection money, is “very mobile” and is being assisted by someone powerful in Luzon.

Lavin issued the warning to those coddling Dayan on Thursday during a briefing with reporters, but he declined to give more details to avoid jeopardizing their operation.

Dayan became a subject of the manhunt after the House of Representatives issued an arrest warrant against him for failing to appear in their drug investigation against De Lima.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II alleged that Dayan served as the senator’s bagman in payoffs from the the drug traffickers.

De Lima, who publicly denounced the extrajudicial killings committed under the Duterte administration, has persistently denied the allegations, even as she called the accusations politically motivated.  SFM/rga