(Eagle News) – Senator Leila de Lima appealed to authorities to spare her former driver and lover, Ronnie Dayan, from the intense pressure and pain, and to treat him well, saying it was she whom the Duterte administration was really after.
“Sa pagkakaaresto kay Ronnie Dayan, umaasa ako sa tamang pagtrato sa kanya ng mga kinauukulan. Ganoon na rin ang panawagan ko sa Pangulo para sa iba pang mga tetestigo laban sa akin katulad ni Kerwin Espinosa,” De Lima said in a statement.
“Ako naman talaga ang habol ninyo. Huwag na ninyo silang pahirapan pa, mga kriminal man sila o hindi,” she added.
The senator said she would face all the charges filed by the government against her in court.
“Huwag na rin sana ninyong gawing drama pa ang paninira sa akin. Isampa na lamang ninyo ang mga kaso sa husgado at doon ko na kayo haharapin,” she said.
Dayan was arrested in a remote area in Brgy. San Felipe, San Juan, La Union on Tuesday, November 22.
She had earlier admitted in a televised interview with GMA News TV’s Winnie Monsod, that she had an illicit relationship with Dayan, a married man, “for a few years.”
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said this admission of De Lima further bolstered the cases filed against her. Aside from the cases connected to the proliferation of illegal drugs at the national penitentiary, the senator and former justice secretary is also facing a disbarment case for her admission on her affair with her former driver.