Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez wants explanation from Sen. De Lima.
ALVAREZ – House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez expressed that Sen. Leila De Lima is responsible for appearing to be interfering a congressional probe.
Recently, hearings and inquiries were held to solve the alleged drug trade inside the national penitentiary and in the country. A lot of personalities are allegedly involved in the drug trade.
Three of the names that were dragged by drug allegations in the center are Sen. Leila De Lima, Kerwin Espinosa, and Ronnie Dayan.
Dayan is the former bodyguard and driver of Sen. De Lima who also happened to be her lover as she had admitted recently. Meanwhile, Kerwin Espinosa, son of Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., is the alleged drug personality in the Eastern Visayas.
Recently, Dayan has been arrested in the rice fields in the province of La Union through a tip from a farmer. Dayan and Espinosa appeared in inquiries held to dig the truth behind the allegations.
Dayan claimed that Sen. Leila De Lima has been receiving money from Kerwin Espinosa through him – a claim completely denied by the Senator. In a previous news report, House Speaker expressed his thought of Sen. De Lima as a ‘serial liar’ after denying allegations of drug involvement.
Recently, a news report in Phil Star Global broke in entailing that House Speaker Alvarez emphasized the accountability of Sen. De Lima in appearing to be interfering with the investigation.
Based on the report, Alvarez emphasized in an interview on ANC that Sen. De Lima’s trying to keep Dayan from laying down his claims on the alleged drug trade inside the national penitentiary is a violation committed individually by the Senator herself.
Last week, the alleged conversation of the Senator and the daughter of Dayan was presented to the committee through an alleged series of text messages between the two. The messages entailed Sen. De Lima advising Dayan through her daughter not to present himself to the probe.
The House Speaker emphasized that parliamentary courtesy’s recognized upon the start of the investigation regarding the issue.
Speaker Alvarez asked, “Is that parliamentary courtesy? Who violated parliamentary courtesy?”
“Nire-respeto namin ang Senado, pero wag naman na mismong lehitimong proceeding ng House, pinapakailaman ng isang myembro (ng Senado) [We are respecting the senate but not that even the legitimate proceedings of the House is interfered by one of its members],” Alvarez said.
A show-cause order has already been issued by the House to Sen. De Lima for her to air out her side regarding the issue according to the report.
Furthermore, the report also made mention of the description of the House Speaker on the Senator. Speaker Alvarez tagged Sen. De Lima as a woman “pretending to be clean” and “a self-proclaimed righteous person.”