Dayan, Espinosa not yet covered by witness protection program–DOJ

Government witnesses Ronnie Dayan and Kerwin Espinosa —INQUIRER PHOTOS

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday said Kerwin Espinosa and Ronnie Dayan, the key witnesses against Sen. Leila de Lima, were not yet covered by the government’s witness protection program (WPP).

Aguirre said while Kerwin had expressed his intention to be under WPP, he had yet to execute an affidavit, the main requirement to enter the program.

Dayan, for his part, failed to appear in the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday for his affidavit.

Aguirre said Espinosa, the alleged drug lord who admitted giving P8 million to De Lima, remained in the custody of the Philippine National Police.

“The PNP needs an authority from the regional trial court that issued the arrest warrant against Kerwin to allow his transfer from PNP to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), and it’s understandable that they cannot get that yet at this point,” he explained.

On Dayan, Aguirre said “we’re expecting that Dayan or those who has custody of him would bring him here today as what his lawyer committed. Until he files an application for provisional coverage of WPP, he cannot be covered yet and he would have to remain under protective custody of the PNP.”

The DOJ chief said it was up to Espinosa and Dayan if they still wanted to be placed under witness protection.

“We’re offering services of WPP if they are still willing. Now if they’re not interested anymore, then it’s okay,” he pointed out.

Aguirre said Dayan was supposed to execute his affidavit after his testimony in Congress but he asked for some time with his family first.

“We have not heard from him since then,” Aguirre said.

Asked for his assessment of the testimony of Dayan in the House probe last week, Aguirre said the former lover of Senator De Lima appeared to be holding back in his statements.

“As what everybody else observed, there seemed to be so many information that he still kept to himself and did not divulge. It looked like he was thinking if his statements would be self-incriminatory,” he commented.

Aguirre stressed that Dayan would have to tell everything he knew and come up with another affidavit to be submitted to the WPP office before he could be covered by the program.