Attorney Boni Tacardon said Vicente Sy confirmed that he never met and gave 500,000 pesos or over $10,000 to the senator, a vocal critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and human rights violations.
Sy revealed this during a hearing the at Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 held Friday.
“Vicente Sy testified last time and he said he gave 500,000 pesos for the campaign of de Lima in 2012. But during the hearing earlier, Sy said he never funded de Lima and that he did not know the senator,” Tacardon said.
De Lima, then Justice secretary, led a raid and uncovered Sy’s private quarters in prison in 2014.
A lawyer with the Public Attorney Office, Rigel Salvador, who was also present in the hearing, said he had no personal knowledge of the accusations that de Lima was involved in the illegal drug trade at the national penitentiary.
In addition, Salvador said he only notarized Sebastian’s sworn statement implicating de Lima in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison, which the prosecution claimed was made by the late inmate Jaybee Sebastian, who reportedly died of Covid-19 last July 18.
“After questioning Salvador, he admitted that he did not create Jaybee Sebastian’s statement and that his participation was only that he notarized such a statement. He said he did not know the contents of the statements and also if the statements were verified,” Tacardon said.
Since Feb. 2017, Senator de Lima has been detained over drug charges which she said were trumped up.
