AN administration lawmaker yesterday alleged the Senate testimony of a former Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agent about a supposed 2012 report on former senator and now President Marcos Jr.’s purported use of illegal drugs is part of a larger effort to destabilize the administration.
“I think it becomes even more clear now na itong mga pangyayaring ito ay kaparte ng isang mas malaki pang effort to discredit and destabilize the current administration,” Rep. Jude Acidre (PL, Tingog), a House deputy majority leader, told a joint press conference.
Acidre expressed doubts about the testimony of dismissed PDEA agent Jonathan Morales, saying he showed up and accused the President of involvement in illegal drugs when the hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs was meant to discuss the seizure of around 1.4 tons or P9.68 billion worth of shabu in Batangas.
Acidre stressed that the detailed explanations provided by PDEA, especially about how all operational reports are computerized and serialized, have raised questions about Morales’ statements.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers earlier questioned the motive of the Senate panel chaired by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa in inviting Morales, citing his alleged “very shady past while in the police service and later as PDEA agent.”
Dela Rosa is a staunch ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who earlier accused the President of being a “drug addict.”
Barbes noted in a statement last Wednesday that Morales’ superiors and colleagues in PDEA have accused him of involvement in illegal arrest and alleged extortion of P8 million from a suspected Filipino-Chinese drug lord who was identified as Mark Tan of Binondo, Manila.
He said even Morales’ superior at that time, former PDEA chief Arturo Cacdac, “despised” his “dishonesty” when he claimed in a congressional hearing that “he (Morales) was asked to plant evidence, to produce evidence, in an alleged shabu laboratory in San Fernando, Pampanga.”
The lawmaker said Morales was officially dismissed from the PDEA in 2013 because of “grave misconduct, dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”
PDEA chief Moro Virgilio Lazo told the Senate hearing last Tuesday that the 2012 documents mentioned in the viral online “PDEA leaks” never existed.
He said the agency has never made a “pre-operations report and authority to operate” to verify Marcos’ alleged use of illegal drugs.
Morales belied Lazo’s denial, saying that he was the one who prepared and signed the documents, which he said are supposed to be securely kept at the agency’s Intelligence and Investigation Service (IIS).
He said a “confidential” agent approached him sometime in March 2012 and showed him five photographs taken on different occasions which allegedly showed Marcos and actress Maricel Soriano engaged in illegal drug activities.
For his part, Isabela Rep. Faustino Dy said the Dela Rosa panel veered too far away from the subject of the hearing even if the PDEA leadership has already refuted the existence of such documents.
“So, are we gonna believe the agency itself or a former agent na wala namang kredibilidad (who has no credibility?) Para sa akin napakadali ng pagpipilian natin (For me, the choice is easy),” Dy said.
