Manila: Millions of pesos in bank accounts of lowly government employees were drug lords’ gifts to a former justice secretary who was elected senator last May, investigators of President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug war said.
Six people have submitted sworn statements which could implicate former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to illegal drug trade operated by convicted drug lords at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Metro Manila’s suburban Mandaluyong, during her term (from 2010 to 2016), Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said.
The witnesses included justice department’s staff members Jong Caranto and Edna “Bogs” Obuyes, said Aguirre, adding both said in their sworn statements that de Lima had ordered them to deposit millions of pesos to a bank account that was not under her name.
“One of them said that de Lima ordered six times to deposit money to the account of Ronnie Dayan,” said Aguirre, referring to de Lima’s former driver at the justice department and alleged lover who reportedly linked her to convicted drug lords who have continued operating a drug den at the NBP.
Aguirre did not give details such as the total amount of money deposited to Dayan’s account.
“We are verifying that,” said Aguirre when asked to confirm local media which published copies of six deposit slips that totalled P24 million [Dh1.8 million] which Obuyes allegedly deposited to her personal account at the Banco de Oro from March to April 2014.
Five deposit slips showed alleged deposits of P4.6 million (Dh383,333.40) on April 24; P4.8 million (Dh400,000) on April 18, 2014; P2.6 million (Dh216,666.70) on April 4, 2014; P7.2 million (Dh600,000) on March 21, 2014; and P4.8 million (Dh200,000) on March 7, 2014.
Other witnesses who implicated de Lima included NBP guards and inmates, said Aguirre, adding all six witnesses were interrogated by the National Bureau of Investigation.
In late August, Duterte released a matrix which showed de Lima as the highest official coddling drug lords at the NBP. It included her ex-driver Dayan who is from Pangasinan, northern Luzon; former Justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan; former governor and now Congressman Amado Espino Jr of Pangasinan; board member Raul Sison of Pangasinan; provincial administrator Rafael Baraan of Pangasinan; and former Bureau of Correction chief Franklin Bucayo.
De Lima has denied Duterte’s allegations, adding that evidences against her were prefabricated.
Drug cartels from China have been manufacturing shabu in the Philippines. Other drug syndicates from Mexico, West Africa, and Korea have been exporting shabu to the Philippines for distribution in Asia. Illegal drug trade reached $8.4 billion in 2013, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
