All of a sudden, this (George) left then he appeared to me in January. I told him “You just came in time… Kolokoy is asking (money) from me.

The deep involvement of detained Sen. Leila de Lima’s aide and paramour Ronnie Dayan in the massive irregularities inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) was affirmed by former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos who revealed that a P1 million bribe from the prison caterer eventually landed in Dayan’s hands.

Ragos claimed it was initially offered to him during the term of then Department of Justice Secretary De Lima, but he passed it on to Dayan who was then demanding money from him.

During the continuation of the Senate probe on the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law presided over by Sen. Richard Gordon, the panel looked into the unabated corruption happening inside the prison facility, including the NBP catering service which Ragos said was also a source of grease money.

Suspended BuCor officers Veronica Buño and Maria Belinda Bansil were also cited for contempt as a way to shield them from harm.

“You are facing perjury charges and contempt charges. I will contempt you here because you will be in danger in Muntinlupa,” Gordon said, referring to the NBP.

“The chair votes to cite you in contempt. I will call it a humanitarian contempt, so you can think about it,” he added.

Buño and Bansil faced the senators in an executive session.

Bansil insisted that they are telling the truth. But Gordon said he will not push the suspended BuCor personnel to spill all they know as their knowledge on the bribery inside the NBP was only at the low level.

Upon the interpellation of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Ragos confirmed there was a bribe offered to him during his time as BuCor officer-in-charge.

“In your experience, how much was the rebate that goes to the director?” Lacson asked.

Ragos said he was enticed with P1 million cash by Mang Kiko Catering, which was supposedly a “Christmas gift,” but which was offered thrice.

The former Bucor OIC, however, said he refused to receive the money and told a certain George to give it to the camp of De Lima through Dayan, who was then asking money from Ragos.

“Your honor, I was there in December as newly-installed OIC. Somebody called saying that he will be giving a Christmas gift… I said I am too busy to get that.… Anyway, after a month, I was called by George saying there is P1 million sent by the catering. That’s yours,” Ragos narrated.

“All of a sudden, this (George) left then he appeared to me in January. I told him, “You just came in time… Kolokoy is asking (money) from me. I will just give this to him,” he added. Kolokoy was an alias given to Dayan.

Ragos’ testimony was affirmed by former National Bureau of Investigation agent Jovencio Ablen.

“Yes, sir. It was Mang Kiko. I’m not the collector. I was just directed to do that,” Ablen said.

A representative from Mang Kiko Catering, Lissa Dizon, denied the allegations of Ragos, saying it was not only their company which provides food service in NBP, as there were two other caterers.

“That is not true. We cannot afford to give any bribe,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Senate panel also discovered that P39 was allocated daily per prisoner in the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW).

Angelina Bautista, a former Bureau of Jail Management and Penology officer, informed the body that she won the bidding for catering in CIW for P39 pesos per day for each prisoner.

According to Lacson, this was against the P60 pesos allocation per day per prisoner allotted under the national budget.

“Why would you allocate the prisoners P39-a-day meals when the government is giving P60? At least in 2018. That was increased to P70 pesos in 2019. I cannot reconcile why you only gave P39 a day. Where did the balance go? That was subsistence allowance,” Lacson said.

The senator warned BuCor officials that they might face technical malversation if the balance of P21 per inmate per day was realigned to other purposes or expenses.

“If we compute this, (the fund) was cut by P21 because (the allocation was) P39 only (per PDL per day). The government can save around P360 million. This is not a budget hearing, but we can amend to cut it by P360 million because we can work on P39 (per prisoner),” he pointed out.

Ragos’ claim flies straight into the face of those alleging that De Lima is a victim of political persecution.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said De Lima is getting a “fair public trial as due process requires” in response to US Senator Patrick Leahy’s call.

Panelo called Leahy “ignorant” for relying on reports from the critics of Mr. Duterte who claim that drug charges against De Lima were fabricated.

“US Senator Patrick Leahy simply does not get it. The good senator from Vermont, through his spokesman David Carle, is showing more ignorance and uttering amusing nonsense on a subject matter based on bogus narratives coming from President Rodrigo Duterte’s vocal and noisy critics and detractors,” he said in a statement.

The official insisted that De Lima’s case followed due process since the investigating prosecutor and the judge have found probable cause to pursue charges and issue the warrant of arrest against her.

“For the sound legal education of Senator Leahy, this representation did not say that the government or the administration for that matter has strong evidence. That is for the court to decide,” Panelo said.

“This Senator Leahy’s retort only validates his sheer ignorance on our country’s substantive and procedural rules,” he added.

Panelo stressed that it was Leahy who has placed De Lima’s case “outside legal process” through the filing of an amendment to the 2020 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill to include a ban on the entry to the US of Philippine government officials involved in her imprisonment. This amendment was approved by the US Senate Appropriations Committee.