By Mario Casayuran Whistleblowers are mostly credible but only until they retract their statements. Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, chairman of the Senate national defense and security committee, issued the statement apparently referring to Allison “Alex” Chiong, Bureau of Immigration (BI) officer detailed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). Senator Panfilo Lacson (JAY GANZON / MANILA BULLETIN) Chiong testified last Thursday before a Senate committee against some of his BI colleagues for their alleged involvement in a bribery scheme that allowed hundreds of thousands of Chinese to enter the country illegally for a fee to work for Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO) establishments in the country. Lacson, a former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, said he based this observation on his experience in the many Senate inquiries that he has conducted and hearings other Senate committees have conducted. “Naging tig-singko sentimos na lang ang pagsisinungaling under oath,” he said. (Lying under oath became very common.) Perjury law That is the reason, and more, that he filed a bill to amend the law on perjury, he added. “In fact my version seeks to increase the penalty for lying under oath to the level of the penalties for crimes imputed against persons that they implicate,” he said. “So if a witness testifies under oath against a person for murder, if found lying, he must suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment) which is the same penalty sought to be suffered by the person he had testified against.” He added, “May hugot din ako dito (I have an emotional pull here) since former Police Colonel (Cezar) Mancao (II), Ador Mawanay, Rosebud, and a host of other lying witnesses lined up by the Arroyo administration against me for the whole nine years while in power almost put me in jail.” Lacson said since he was sure he would be acquitted in the end, he decided “not to give his tormentors the pleasure of seeing me behind bars even for a minute.” “Thanks to a relatively new jurisprudence that allows respondents to submit pleadings and prove their innocence while not submitting themselves under the jurisdiction of the court after a warrant of arrest has been issued against them,” he explained. Mancao had previously testified against Michael Ray Aquino, their former commander Senator Panfilo Lacson, and Superintendent Glenn Dumlao. Mancao, Aquino, and Dumlao all served under Lacson at the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and when he was PNP chief under the Estrada administration. Mancao and Aquino fled the country shortly after charges were filed against them under the Arroyo government.