SEN. Ronald Dela Rosa denied Kerwin Espinosa’s claims that he pressured him to accuse Peter Lim and former senator Leila de Lima of involvement in the illegal drug trade on Friday.
Dela Rosa, chief of the national police during the Duterte administration, said Espinosa, a confessed drug lord, could not be relied on to tell the truth.
“Espinosa is a drug lord. He is not a credible witness; you should not believe him. I only spoke to him once when I went to his prison cell and asked him about Espenido. Other than that, we have had no conversation,” said Dela Rosa in Filipino when asked to comment on Espinosa’s testimony before the House quad committee.
Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa. Photo by: J. Gerard Seguia
“I just want to confirm what happened with Espenido. Is it true that he claimed Espenido accepted money from him? It was only that night after the Senate hearing that I was disturbed because he said that Espenido was accepting money from him,” Dela Rosa said.
Dela Rosa said that Espinosa told him that he was in a terrible mood that day because his father was killed.
When asked if he plans to attend the House quadcomm hearings, Dela Rosa said, “Never, never, never.”
When asked if he had a message for Espinosa, Dela replied: “Tell him, ‘When I see that, I will punch him in the face! If he can talk like that, if he can talk, you’d think he’s clean. Why would he make up a story?”
On the other hand, former senator Leila de Lima said she was a scapegoat of the Duterte administration after Espinosa named Dela Rosa as the one who forced him to implicate her as a protector of drug lords.
In a video statement that was shown on her social media platforms on Friday night, de Lima said Espinosa’s testimony confirms the “orchestrated lies” that were used to imprison and vilify her for years.
“For standing up to the abuses of the Duterte regime, I was targeted, and my integrity as a public servant and human rights advocate was smeared, but now, the truth is being laid bare: I was used as a scapegoat, and the real perpetrators of corruption and abuse remained protected,” the former senator said.
“I’ve always maintained my innocence, and [Friday’s] testimony only strengthens my resolve to fight for justice, not just for myself, but for the many others who have been silenced and oppressed by a system that rewards lies and punishes truth-tellers,” she added.
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