(Eagle News) — Senator Leila de Lima had admitted to texting the daughter of her former bodyguard and lover, Ronnie Dayan, not to attend the hearing at the House inquiry on the illegal drug trade at the national penitentiary last October.
But the senator qualified that this was not “obstruction of justice,” but “obstruction of persecution.”
“They’re imputing disrespect on my part. Aren’t they the ones disrespecting me all this time? So what do they expect me to do now?” De Lima said.
“I stand by my advice. It was an advice and I stand by it,” said De Lima who had been tagged by several high-profile inmates as being involved in the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prisons.
“Asan ang hustisya sa ginagawa nila sa akin? Why call it obstruction of justice. Mas maganda ang itawag natin diyan obstruction of persecution. I am trying to obstruct the acts of persecution being done to be by this administration,” De Lima said.
During a House hearing on November 24, Ronnie Dayan testified that he had asked De Lima for directions regarding what he would do to the House summons asking him to appear at the House inquiry.
He said he asked her daughter, Hannah May, to text De Lima.
De Lima’s instructions came through two text messages received by Dayan’s daughter, on October 1, 2016.
She told the lawmakers that the text was: “Hi Tita. Gud pm po. May tinatanong po si Pa. Bakit daw may subpoena siya at anong gagawin nya?”
The text was dated Oct. 1, 2016 at 5:38 p.m.
The lady senator, registered as TL in Hannah May’s phone, replied at 6:14 p.m. on the same date: Pakisabi sa kanya, magtago lang muna sya. kagagawan yan ni Speaker Alvarez at dikta ni Digong. Pagpipiyestahan lang siya at kaming dalawa kapag nag-appear siya sa hearing na yan.
Hannah said her follow-up text was: “Hindi po ba siya huhulihin kapag di siya pumunta?”
To this, De Lima replied: “Hindi ba nagtatago naman siya?”
Because of this, Dayan said he decided not to appear at the hearing.
Dayan said he then decided to hide after De Lima did not reply anymore to the text messages her daughter had been sending to her.
