THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) yesterday said the 2012 documents mentioned in the viral online “PDEA leaks” report allegedly showing that it had set anti-illegal drugs operations against then senator and now President Marcos Jr. and actress Maricel Soriano never existed.
During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs on the supposed report, PDEA chief Moro Virgilio Lazo said the agency has never made a “pre-operations report and authority to operate” to verify Marcos’ alleged use of illegal drugs.
“There are no such documents, if those are really documents from PDEA,” Lazo told committee chairman Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.
But former PDEA agent Jonathan 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).
Morales said he never had the intention of making the documents public and was himself caught by surprise when a vlogger named “Maharlika” got hold of copies of the papers and discussed it in her social media platforms in early April.
Maharlika, who was not present during the hearing, has said that copies of the documents were emailed to her. She did not name the supposed sender.
Morales 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.
He 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.
The operation, however, was supposedly stopped by then PDEA deputy director general for operations Carlos Gadapan allegedly on orders of then Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.
Gadapan can no longer confirm or deny Morales’ claim as he has already passed away.
Morales said that soon after the documents were exposed by Maharlika, he wrote a letter to Lazo and asked the PDEA chief to conduct an investigation on the alleged involvement of Marcos to illegal drugs.
