SURIGAO del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers yesterday questioned the motive of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs for inviting to its hearing a former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agent who testified about the existence of 2012 documents allegedly showing that the agency had set anti-illegal drugs operations against then senator and now President Marcos Jr. and actress Maricel Soriano.
Barbers said the panel, chaired by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, allowed former PDEA agent Jonathan Morales to speak about the alleged PDEA documents last Tuesday when the subject of the hearing was supposed to be the seizure of around 1.4 tons or P9.68 billion worth of shabu at a police checkpoint in Alitagtag town in Batangas last April 15.
“The Senate hearing was supposed to be an inquiry on the seizure of 1.4 tons of shabu in Batangas. I’m surprised, and many of us are wondering, why Morales would appear and be included as resource person in that hearing. Is there something, a drama maybe, that is unfolding on this issue?” he said in a statement.
Dela Rosa is a staunch ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who earlier accused the President of being a “drug addict.”
Barbers, chair of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, likewise questioned Morales’ credibility, saying the “dishonorably dismissed” PDEA agent, who is now “masquerading” as an anti-drug crusader under a group called Laban ng Pamilyang Pilipino Center for Investigative Regulatory Compliance, “himself, reportedly has a very shady past while in the police service and later as PDEA agent.”
“Base sa mga ulat, si Morales ay na-dismiss sa police service bago pa sya nag-apply as PDEA agent. Sa pinirmahan nya na personal data sheet sa PDEA, sinabi nya umano na wala, pero meron pala, siyang kaso sa PNP bago sya nag-apply sa PDEA (Based on reports, Morales was dismissed from the police service before he applied to be a PDEA agent. In the PDEA personal data sheet that he signed, he said there was no case against him in the PNP before he applied with the PDEA but there was),” he said.
The administration lawmaker said his PDEA superiors and colleagues eventually accused Morales 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.
Barbers 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.”
Early last month, Morales again surfaced after he authenticated misleading PDEA operational documents — Authority to Operate and Pre-Operation Report both dated March 11, 2012 — linking the President and Soriano to illegal drugs.
PDEA chief Moro Virgilio Lazo told the Senate hearing 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 Soriano engaged in illegal drug activities.
Morales said he got the sworn statement of the informer, which he later used to prepare the pre-operations report and authority to operate to verify the information but the operation was allegedly stopped by then PDEA deputy director general for operations Carlos Gadapan allegedly on orders of then Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.