Dayan’s wife more of the victim – Sotto

MANILA, Philippines - The one most embarrassed or hurt by revelations on the love affair of Sen. Leila de Lima and her former driver Ronnie Dayan was the latter’s wife Neneng. 

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III was reacting to the hearing at the House of Representatives last Thursday, where congressmen drew out salacious details of the seven-year affair.

Vice President Leni Robredo and many women legislators have criticized members of the House committee on justice for going into the details of the relationship, when it was clearly a private matter and had nothing at all to do with the alleged involvement of De Lima in the illegal drug trade.

Hearing the testimony of her former driver-lover last Thursday, De Lima said she was heartbroken by how her personal relationship had become a subject of public ridicule. 

“I am quizzical about why some women legislators are so concerned about the privacy of Sen. De Lima and yet I have not heard them to be concerned about the wife of Dayan,” Sotto said. “I think she is more of the victim.”

De Lima had previously admitted to having an affair with Dayan, describing it as the “frailties of a woman.” 

Robredo called what took place in the House hearing as “slut shaming” and a form of harassment.

Sen. Grace Poe said a lot of the questions were geared towards voyeurism and that certain personal affairs should not have been discussed.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros called it a “public lynching in aid of misogyny and sexism.”

Sotto said regardless of what was discussed during the hearing, the affair in itself was definitely devastating to the wife of Dayan.

“I think she is the most badly hurt, not only by the issues raised in Congress, but by the impact of the controversy on her children and family,” he said.

Sotto is chairman of the Senate committee on ethics, which is tackling two complaints filed against De Lima.

Some members of the House are also contemplating filing an ethics complaint against De Lima, either before the Senate or the Supreme Court, for telling Dayan to ignore the House summons.

Meanwhile, Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy appealed yesterday to her colleagues in Congress to consider women’s feelings and stick to the real issue when questioning witnesses during hearings.

Dy said the line of questioning on the De Lima-Dayan affair got “too personal,” when the issue at hand was the alleged illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

“All congressmen have the right to ask what they want to ask during the hearing – it is our right and privilege,” Dy said in Filipino. “But my wish and appeal is that next time, they also take into consideration what we women feel.”

She said she left the plenary hall early, feeling uncomfortable with the line of questioning of Dayan.

While she admitted the importance of establishing the extent of the relationship between De Lima and Dayan, Dy said the questions in last Thursday’s House hearing just got off-track from the real issue. – With Romina Cabrera