A PAMPANGA court has found former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) officer Jonathan Mo-rales, who had linked President Marcos Jr. to alleged illegal drug use, guilty of perjury for providing false testimony against two suspected drug traffickers in 2011.
In an 11-page decision promulgated last August 7, San Fernando Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch IV Acting Presiding Judge Jason Alquiroz found Morales guilty “beyond reasonable doubt” and sentenced him to four months of imprisonment.
The court also fined him P,1000 “with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.”
Morales, who had been dismissed by the PDEA, was accused of giving false testimony under oath on June 15, August 1, and September 21, 2011 before the San Fernando City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 43 against two Chinese suspected of drug trafficking.
Court records showed Morales stated under oath that Albert Co Chua and Wen Chen Miao were arrest-ed in a legitimate anti-illegal drug operation in May 2010 in San Fernando, Pampanga.
He later recanted his testimonies during cross-examination, saying he was forced to testify against the two Chinese by his superior, Director Lyndon Aspacio.
Morales told the court he executed his testimony for fear that he would be fired or executed if he did not follow Aspacio’s alleged orders.
He added he also feared being transferred to “dangerous assignments” if he refused to testify.
But the court said it found no evidence to support his assertion that Aspacio forced or intimidated him into providing false testimony.
“The superior officer allegedly employing duress, force, intimidation or threat was not even present when the accused subscribed the Affidavit before the State Prosecutor,” the court said.
“We found no evidence to support the accused’s claim that he was forced and intimidated by Director Lyndon Aspacio to execute the affidavit and to testify in court based thereon,” the ruling added.
The court also junked Morales’ claim that he feared being given dangerous assignments if he refused to testify.
“Additionally, the fear of being transferred to ‘dangerous assignments’ such as in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi is rather speculative, if not discriminatory and unwarranted,” the court said.
“As guided by jurisprudence, for duress to exempt criminal liability the same must be based on real and imminent fear,” the court added.
Morales claimed to have signed the supposed leaked PDEA pre-operation report in 2012 which linked the President and actress Maricel Soriano to illegal drugs.
But PDEA Director General Moro Virgilio Lazo refuted Morales’ claims, asserting the documents did not exist.
He was later cited in contempt by the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs for “con-tinuously lying” to the committee during his testimony. Morales was later released from Senate deten-tion.
