WHISTLEBLOWER Sandra Cam on Wednesday vowed to reveal more dirt to prove her allegations made against Senator Leila de Lima, whom she tagged as the “Drug Princess” for failing to do her job while she was Justice secretary.
“I’m just waiting for the investigation to happen but if they want to invite me I’m 101 percent ready to prove my case against [De Lima],” said Cam, the president of the Whistleblowers Association of the Philippines in a media forum.
“I have eight witnesses to prove that she has done nothing in preventing the drug trade,” she added. In a media interview, Cam, an adversary of De Lima, said that she cannot deny the fact that she and Dayan were indeed in an affair.
“Many could see her mingling with her driver, jogging even going to the market holding hands with her driver,” Cam said. “That’s why when she is being asked in many interviews, she can only say that she and Dayan were indeed close but claims things need to be kept personal.”
“She cannot deny the fact. There’s already smoke that she cannot even control,” she added.
The President, in a late night press briefing last week, revealed a matrix of the drug operation allegedly being run by De Lima and her former driver and bodyguard Ronnie Dayan.
Also identified in the matrix, were Pangasinan Rep. Amado Espino, former Justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan III; Baraan’s brother Raffy; and former Bureau of Corrections chief Franklin Jesus Bucayu.
Cam said that in 2012, De Lima already knew about the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary through an investigation of a certain fiscal Tugonon.
Further discussions and appeals were made by Cam and a former prison guard for De Lima, then Justice secretary, to investigate the illegal drug trade, but she did nothing, only to find out that her driver was already colluding with top drug lords inside the New Bilibid Prison through associates inside government.
“Ronnie Dayan would go there twice a week during the time of [Bureau of Corrections] OIC director Rafael Ragos. He would go inside the cell of Jaybee Sebastian when it was not yet demolished,” she added.
“Jaybee Sebastian was her fingerman, while Peter Co was having transactions already with [Dayan],” Cam said.
In the same interview, Cam reiterated her accusations against former undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, whom she claimed was the senator’s bagman in anomalous deals during their tenures at the Department of Justice.
De Lima and Baraan have denied these accusations.
De Lima on Wednesday lashed back at President Rodrigo Duterte for mounting a personal vendetta against her and denied knowing Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, Leyte province, and his drug lord son Kerwin.
“I think he has actually taken a personal vendetta against me because he has not forgotten that when I was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, I led the investigation of the Davao Death Squad. He has not forgotten that,” De Lima told an interview over CNN Philippines.
The DDS was a vigilante group which had reportedly killed over 10,000 suspected criminals during the incumbency of Duterte as Davao mayor. Duterte reportedly sanctioned vigilante killings under his watch.
“I had been warned that if I’m going to proceed with the Senate inquiry [on extrajudicial killings], he’s going to destroy me,” said De Lima.
As chairperson of the Senate justice and human rights committee, De Lima had conducted two hearings on the alleged extra-judicial killings of drug personalities which during the Duterte administration’s bloody war against drug suspects.
Reacting to a photo showing her with the young Espinosa who is being hunted by authorities over charges of drug pushing, De Lima said she can no longer remember it. She related that it was one of the many photo opportunities during the election campaign.
She also denied any relationship with the Espinosas although the Leyte mayor tagged her as a protector of his son in his illicit drug trade.
“They were just among those who asked to take a photo with me. That’s not something like an arranged meeting. That was just a chance meeting, if that was in Baguio,” said De Lima who said her detractors led by the President are good in digging up dirt.
De Lima was not around when Senator Alan Peter Cayetano delivered a privilege speech on the administration’s war against illegal drugs. De Lima, however, attended the Senate committee on energy hearing scheduled earlier on the same day.
In his speech, Cayetano sought a halt to the bickering over the bloody anti-drug campaign while Duterte is on his first international trip as the country’s leader.
The President is scheduled to leave the country for Laos, Brunei and Indonesia from September 4 to September 9.
“Maybe we can have a gentleman’s agreement, a gentlewoman’s agreement, when the President is abroad, let’s take care of other issues for the meantime,” said Cayetano.
“Let us act as one in the Senate in deciding certain important matters like how do we help police in terms of giving them more equipment, giving them better pay, and maybe having [committee] chairs who do not have bias,” he also said.