REP. Harry Roque Jr. on Thursday filed a complaint with the Senate’s Ethics committee seeking the expulsion of Senator Leila de Lima over her alleged involvement in illegal drugs.
He also sought the expulsion of Rep. Ron Salo who, he said, connived with De Lima and used a foundation to cover up the illegal drug operation at the New Bilibid Prison.
In a complaint-affidavit filed with the committee led by Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Roque accused De Lima of having had links to drug lords detained at the New Bilibid Prison.
High-profile prisoners in the penitentiary, led by Jayvee Sebastian, testified in the House on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs at the NBP and De Lima’s receipt of drug money to finance her candidacy for the Senate.
In a statement, De Lima said he did not know Ron Salo.
“I don’t recall any instance that I have ever worked or dealt with him,” De Lima said.
Secondly, I don’t know where Mr. Roque is coming from. I’m sorry to hear that he has been expelled from his party. Maybe if he served his party better rather than wasting his time on baseless and inane attacks against me, he wouldn’t have lost his constituents.
Thirdly, if he wants to be relevant and be in the news again”•which is presumably why he is dragging my name into their intra-party dispute”•do not do it at my expense.”
Roque claimed that De Lima was able to carry out the alleged irregularities at the NBP with the help of BuCor Love Foundation Inc., a non-government organization involved in spiritual and charitable work at the Bilibid and which provided technical and vocational skills education to its prisoners.
BuCor Love “was in reality criminally misused and abused by Respondent De Lima and Representative Salo as a shield to mask the illicit drug activities at the New Bilibid Prison,” Roque said.
The foundation was headed by his party mate and Representative Ron Salo. Roque said he was also asking the House of Representatives to expel Salo.
“An investigation by the Justice Committee of the House of Representatives has established her [De Lima’s] complicity as an enabler and beneficiary of the illicit drug trade at the NBP while she was the secretary of Justice, ostensibly to fund her 2016 campaign as a senator,” Roque said.
“Respondent De Lima not only conspired with high-profile prisoners inside the NBP, she also criminally conspired with a character who is now a current member of the House of Representatives, Representative Ron Salo, in order to mask and hide their illegal activities inside the NBP maximum security compound and afford them impunity.”
Roque said Salo had been trying to stop him from further investigating their alleged involvement in the NBP anomalies by trying to oust him from Congress.
He claimed De Lima was “clearly guilty of gross misconduct” for her alleged conspiracy with Salo to hide her involvement in the NBP narcotics trade and allegedly deceiving the public on her relationship with her former driver Ronnie Dayan.
“Her relationship with Ronnie Dayan had to be exposed not because it was intriguing, but because it establishes the mode through which Respondent De Lima operated her illegal financing activities, Roque said.
