AN ANTICRIME group filed Friday a disbarment case against Senator Leila De Lima before the Supreme Court Office of the Bar Confidant.
In its 46-page complaint-affidavit, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) claimed De Lima violated the Lawyers Oath and the Code of Professional Responsibility for her "gross immorality."
The case stemmed from the alleged illicit affair of De Lima with her married former driver and close-in security, Ronnie Dayan.
Complainants in the case are VACC chairman Dante Jimenez, its members Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala, as well as Sandra Cam, a known critic of de Lima.
The VACC said de Lima's alleged affair with Dayan "demonstrates her lack of moral character" to be qualified for the responsibilities and duties imposed on lawyers.
"The respondent is grossly imprudent in managing her personal affairs. The fact remains that her relationship with Ronnie Dayan, a married man, is grossly immoral," the VACC said.
"Worse, she never denied such relationship," the VACC added.
The alleged relationship between De Lima and Dayan was backed by statements of high profile inmates in the NBP and de Lima's former security detail Joenel Sanchez who testified before a congressional inquiry into the narcotics trade in the penitentiary last month.
According to Sanchez, he had witnessed the intimate relationship between the two during their trips to different provinces like Bicol and Pangasinan. In those trips, Sanchez said de Lima and Dayan shared one bedroom.
Aside from the disbarment case, de Lima is also facing two separate drug trafficking complaints filed by the VACC and former officials of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for her alleged involvement in the proliferation of illegal drug trade in NBP. (Sunnex)
