Social media was abuzz over the admission of Sen. Leila De Lima that she had a romantic relationship with her former driver and bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, who happens to be married although now separated from his wife. The senator said it was due to ‘frailties of a woman’ and that she had trusted Dayan; but she broke up with him before she ran for senator.
WATCH: De Lima Finally Admits Relationship with Former Driver, Calls it “Frailties of a Woman”
In an official statement released after De Lima made that statement, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo wrote that the admission not only vindicates the president, it has also led to various legal ramifications especially because Dayan was already married at the time the two had a relationship.
Panelo calls on the senator to resign from her position to “save the Senate from embarrassment”. He also believes De Lima’s admission strengthens the charges she now faces with regard to her alleged involvement in the drug trade.
Here’s the full text of Panelo’s statement:
The admission by [Sen. Leila] De Lima on her romantic, albeit illegal and moral, liaison with her bodyguard-driver validates the accusation of President Rodrigo R. Duterte that the senator committed unlawful and immoral acts and opens her to a criminal charge of adultery, her lover being a married man.
It strengthens the case filed against her on her involvement in the drug operations. It opens her to expulsion proceedings in the Senate by the Senate Ethics Committee for immorality and grave misconduct in office apart from opening herself to disbarment proceedings as a member of the bar for immorality and unethical conduct.
To save the Senate from further embarrassment , she must voluntarily resign. She has herself to blame for the present destructive predicament she is in.
With her aforesaid admission President Duterte has been vindicated on his accusations against De Lima and put a lie to her pretended protestations of innocence and her cry of being a victim of persecution.
