(Eagle News) — For Justice Secretary, Vitaliano Aguirre II, the testimony of Kerwin Espinosa bears more weight than that of Ronnie Dayan as the latter seemed to be holding back a lot more information for fear of being implicated in the illegal drugs trade.
In a press briefing on Friday, Aguirre said both witnesses have been placed under provisional witness protection program (WPP).
But it is Kerwin, a suspected drug lord in Eastern Visayas, whose testimony is more credible, he said.
Aguirre described Kerwin’s testimony as the possible “smoking gun” that would pin down Senator Leila De Lima.
The young Espinosa testified before a Senate hearing that he had handed over to Dayan P8 million in drug money which De Lima’s former driver-bodguard had asked of him in a phone conversation.
He said that Dayan asked for P2 million in monthly contributions as protection guarantee from Espinosa, but the latter haggled and brought that down to P700,000.
He said Dayan first consulted De Lima about this.
When he called him up again, Dayan allegedly told Kerwin that the then justice secretary agreed to this but wanted P2 million to be initially given as “goodwill” money.
Dayan then asked Kerwin that he cough up P8 million before the conduct of the May 2016 elections for De Lima. Kerwin said that all these pay-offs happened in 2015 up to February 2016
Dayan, in his testimony before the House committee on justice, confirmed that Kerwin had indeed given him money which he handed over to De Lima.
But Dayan said this happened in 2014, not 2015 as what Kerwin had testified to in the Senate.
Because of this inconsistency, DOJ chief Aguirre said they would want to clear this up with Dayan before he could be regularly placed under WPP.
“We have a lot of questions to ask supposedly on inconsistencies in his statement and we want to clear that up. Personally, I think that he is hiding a lot,” Aguirre told a press briefing.
Dayan also denied that he knew the New Bilibid Prisons inmates who had earlier testified at the House hearing that they gave money to Dayan as he had requested for De Lima’s campaign.
Aguirre said Dayan probably felt afraid that he might get into deeper trouble if would tell everything about his involvement in the payoffs and the illegal drug trade at the NBP.
“Pero pag yan ay napagpapaliwanagan, na basta’t ang kanyang sasabihin ay katotohanan will earn him immunity at wala na siyang ikatatakot sa anumang prosekusyon, then I believe na baka magbago ang isip ni Ronnie Dayan,” Aguirre said in an interview. (from a report of Erwin Temperante, Eagle News Service)
