Ombudsman creates fact-finding body to probe De Lima

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered a fact-finding investigation into the alleged involvement of Sen. Leila de Lima in the illegal drugs trade, shortly after confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and her former driver and lover Ronnie Dayan separately appeared before Congress and offered explosive testimonies.

“I’m conducting fact-finding because there have been some leads,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the University of the Philippines’ College of Law alumni homecoming on Friday.

She said the antigraft body gave due course to the Oct. 12 complaint by Police Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, head of the Albuera, Leyte, police.

In the complaint filed before the deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas, Espenido accused De Lima of receiving payoffs from Espinosa.

A series of investigations

He said this was established by a series of investigations and interviews with several people who had knowledge of Espinosa’s activities.

It cited an affidavit by Espinosa’s security aide Marcelo Adorco, who said he met De Lima in Baguio City in March, and another one by Espinosa’s brother Roland Kevin, who claimed to have handed Dayan, P4 million during a dinner meeting.

Besides Espenido, Duterte ally Greco Belgica also filed early this month an administrative complaint against De Lima after she admitted having had an affair with Dayan.

Morales initially said she was not inclined to initiate an investigation, citing a lack of firm leads against De Lima, even as the House of Representatives held successive hearings to allow inmates and disgruntled employees to hurl accusations against her.

Inconsistencies

While there have been inconsistencies between the testimonies of Dayan and Espinosa, the justice department has said it was considering placing the two in the witness protection program as it builds a case against the senator.

But Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop said that while Dayan appeared to be the “missing link” against De Lima, he failed to answer crucial questions about his sizeable bank account and properties.

He said Kerwin was more credible, stressing that his testimony was “more flowing, and more compelling.”

“If you compare their affidavits, Espinosa was answering directly to questions offered by a lawyer and a police officer,” he said. “Dayan’s affidavit was a monologue with no indication on what questions he was answering. It appeared he only wanted to say what he wanted the public to know.”

Expected

De Lima welcomed the investigation even as she dismissed the charges as an attempt to link her to the drug trade “in the most absurd context.”

“To investigate such matters is the constitutional mandate of the Ombudsman,” De Lima said in a statement on Saturday.

She said Morales had proven her competence and impartiality in “making public officers accountable to the public.”

“As a public officer, I am accountable to the people in both my past and present official capacities as DOJ (Department of Justice) secretary and as senator,” she stressed. “I am not exempt from any Ombudsman investigation, as no public officer is, which is the clear intent of the Constitution.”

She stressed that the Constitution guarantees the accountability of public officers.

She said it was about time  Morales’ office asserted “its primary jurisdiction over my case, and oust the DOJ of any authority  over cases cognizable by the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan” especially since Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has shown a “lack of objectivity and interest in pursuing the truth.”

Welcome

“I welcome the Ombudsman investigation, both as a regular undertaking of said office and as an opportunity for me to clear my record of any allegations of wrongdoing,” De Lima said.

She said Aguirre and the National Bureau of Investigation  “have proven themselves to be nothing more than instruments of the present administration against vocal dissenters to the President, such as myself.”/rga