Seven more persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) announced they will be recanting their testimonies against former senator Leila de Lima, saying they were forced to become witnesses against her.
PDLs German Agojo, Tomas Doniña, Jaime Patcho, Wu Tuan Yuan (aka Peter Co), Engelberto Durano, Jerry Pepino and Hans Anton Tan wrote a letter dated Nov. 17 to Presiding Judge Gener Gito of the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206, who is handling the last remaining drug case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in February 2017 under the Duterte administration against De Lima and others.
Former senator Leila de Lima (Noel Pabalate)
In the letter, the seven PDLs, who previously testified in court against De Lima and are currently serving their sentences at the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, told Gito that they “would like to recant our previous testimonies against the latter, in the interest of truth and justice.”
“We are aware that by doing this, we are risking our lives and the safety and security of our families. However, we firmly believe in the saying ‘the truth shall set you free,’” they said.
They added, “At this point we would like to state that our participation as witnesses in the drug cases against former DOJ secretary De Lima was vitiated by undue compulsion and influence, and thus, any judicial statement made by us, is void of lack of consent.”
The PDLs asked Gito that they be “given the opportunity to set the record straight and correct our mistakes by stating the unadulterated truth this time.”
“Prior to our forced participation as witnesses against Senator De Lima, we faced unimaginable threats to our lives as the only choice we had then was to testify against the good senator. Proof that such threat to our lives was real and imminent was the stabbing incidents that transpired at the NBP [New Bilibid Prison] premises in September 2016 resulting in the actual death of one PDL, and seriously injuring several others,” they revealed.
They said “this was followed by a series of attempts on our lives after we were transferred to the Philippine Marine Detention Facilities at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, and Custodial Detention Center at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.”
The PDLs said they “no longer desire to live with the knowledge that we allowed ourselves to become pawns or instruments of injustice. We wish to live a life of dignity, integrity and responsibility moving forward.”
“We would like to be given that chance should you allow us to recant our testimonies/statements in the aforementioned cases against former Senator De Lima. If given the chance, it will be our way of expressing our sincerest apologies to Senator De Lima and her family,” they said.
The seven PDLs asked Gito to transfer them from the Sablayan prison for their own safety.
“Finally, we request for our transfer from the Sablayan Prison & Penal Farm for our safety and security, and that of our families who also face the same risks when they pay us a visit at the said penal colony,” they added.
De Lima, who is out on a P300,000 bail, submitted the letter to the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 through an urgent motion.
She is asking the court to transfer the seven PDLs from the Sablayan prison to the NBP in Muntinlupa.
Last month, PDLs and state witnesses Rodolfo Magleo and Nonilo Arile, who are also confined at the Sablayan prison, wrote a letter to De Lima and former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director Franklin Jesus Bucayu to say that they will recant their testimonies “for several reasons with the primordial objective–to help you both to be set free together with your fellow co-accused in the last case at the sala of Hon. Judge Gito of Muntinlupa City RTC Br. 206.”
“We both planned to recant as early as 2018 but due to impossibility of communication, we were not able to do so. We are bothered by our conscience. We do not want you to be victims of mistrial. We will reveal in due time. We are assuring you all that the last case will be dismissed,” Magleo and Arile said.
Under case 17-167, pending before Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206, De Lima, Bucayu, Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez and Jose Adrian Dera are accused of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.
The DOJ charged that between March 2013 to May 2015, the accused used inmates at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa to sell and trade dangerous drugs using mobile phones and other electronic devices, and allegedly got the proceeds amounting to P70 million.