De Lima: ‘No one can judge me on my morality’

Senator Leila de Lima. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Sen. Leila de Lima on Wednesday shrugged off calls by administration officials for her to resign after she admitted she had an affair with her bodyguard, who disappeared following allegations he was her bagman in collecting payoffs from inmates operating a multibillion-peso illegal drug trade in New Bilibid Prison (NBP)  when she was justice secretary.

“No one can judge me on my morality,” De Lima told reporters.

President Duterte, speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, said De Lima’s admission that she had an affair with Ronnie Dayan was not enough to pin her down on the drug charges against her.

Citing the “frailties of a woman,” De Lima in a TV interview aired on Monday admitted, after months of evading the issue, that  she had a romantic relationship with Dayan, her former driver and security aide.

“I was asked a direct question, I gave a direct answer,” she said, adding that she did not want to lie and so she admitted a “past episode of my life.”

Dayan is the subject of a manhunt with a P1-million bounty for snubbing a congressional hearing.

“I hope he’s still alive,” Mr. Duterte said. “He’s a vital witness.”

De Lima, 57, maintained that when she entered into a romantic relationship with Dayan, her marriage had already been annulled while Dayan was also separated from his wife.

“I’ve been very truthful about my innocence on the allegations against my alleged drug trade involvement. I can’t be untruthful with respect to my personal life,” she said.

Drug lords in NBP testified that Dayan collected payoffs from them in exchange for protection and that they were told to raise money for De Lima’s senatorial candidacy in May.

De Lima dismissed statements by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo that her televised confession only validated allegations she was involved in the illegal drug trade.

 ‘Look who’s talking’

Panelo said De Lima’s admission opened her to expulsion by the Senate ethics committee for immorality and grave misconduct in office, apart from disbarment.

De Lima said her past affair was “not relevant” but that her detractors were using this to shame her.

“This misogynistic tendency of the President  wants to portray me as an immoral woman. There  comes in the double standard of our society. Look who’s talking,” she said, alluding to Mr. Duterte’s own martial situation.

De Lima said she would not be surprised if Kerwin Espinosa, the alleged biggest drug lord in Eastern Visayas set to be extradited this week from Abu Dhabi, would be the latest to testify against her and implicate her in the illegal drug trade.

During the Senate hearing last week on the Nov. 5 killing of Espinosa’s father, Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., in his jail cell, Leyte police officials said family members had claimed to have seen their brother in the company of De Lima.

The officials said De Lima was No. 1 on the list of officials  allegedly protecting the Espinosas as claimed by the slain mayor. —WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS