Ex-PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva to be detained in House after holidays

Former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Wilkins Villanueva will be detained in the House of Representatives after being cited in contempt by the quad committee for “lying."

Villanueva drew the ire of lawmakers for his refusal to directly answer whether he interrogated Jed Pilapil-Sy, wife of Allan Sy, who was reportedly the financier of the raided shabu laboratory in Dumoy, Davao City, on New Year's Eve of 2004. The incident allegedly resulted in the fabrication of criminal cases against her.

Jed was detained in 2005 and is currently serving her sentence. She had been arrested without a warrant. 

Quad comm co-chair Stephen Paduano, visibly irked, gave Villanueva a final warning whether he had "personally interrogated" Pilapil-Sy.

"Mr. Chair, I don't remember that I talked to her. All I know is that she was in the office and I don't lie, Mr. Chair," countered Villanueva, who once served as PDEA regional head for Northern Mindanao.

But, Paduano responded, “You are lying! You are not respecting this committee!"

Jed recounted that she had been summoned by PDEA-Mindanao about her knowledge of her husband Allan's alleged drug dealings, which she claimed she was unaware of.

She lamented that PDEA later twisted her statements to implicate her in the narcotics trade.

"I must admit that's really the reason I [sow] anger towards PDEA. Because when I was invited, I never thought that they would use that [falsified] statements to sue us," she stressed.

Among the accusations was that she was in cahoots with her husband and had been seen carrying boxes of chemicals and drugs, which she claimed were newly purchased appliances for their rental house.

"She just assumed that I was there [during the interrogation] because I was in the office. When in fact, she had no knowledge that I was there personally when Montederamos was interrogating her, Mr. Chair," Villanueva pointed out.

Prior to that, Jed, from Surigao del Sur, told lawmakers that she and Allan were supposed to meet in a mall on the eve of 31 December 2004. She reckoned that she repeatedly dialed her husband but received no response.

Around 9 p.m., when she got home, she was surprised by a visit from then-Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who was fuming and searching for Allan.

Allan was reportedly the "manager" of the said dismantled clandestine shabu laboratory in Dumoy, Davao City, where 76.8 kilos of high-grade shabu with a street value of over P152 million were seized.

The anti-narcotics operation also resulted in the deaths of six foreigners, believed to be Chinese or Taiwanese nationals, who allegedly fired back at authorities serving their arrest warrants.

Villanueva maintained that his subordinates merely "interviewed" Jed but later admitted she was subjected to a warrantless arrest.

"Since it's already delegated to my investigator, I don't know how many days she stayed there. My only instruction is to conduct an interview [with] Jed Pilapil because she is really a person of interest, Mr. Chair. As to detaining her, I have no personal knowledge, Mr. Chair," he told the panel.

He continued, "During that time, we [were] busy conducting follow-up investigations and operations on other sites where the [drug] warehouses are."

Lawmakers, however, argued that Villanueva could not just feign ignorance because he was "the head of the agency" at that time.

Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. described PDEA's holding custody of Jed as "kidnapping."

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, meanwhile, contended that regardless of whether Villanueva's claimed lack of involvement in Jed's supposed unlawful arrest, he must be held accountable as part of his command responsibility.

"Why are you denying now that you don't know? You should accept responsibility for all things your people did outside the bounds of law," Acop asserted. "You are dropping your people, and that is not supposed to be the case for a commander."

Later in the hearing, Acop moved that Villanueva serve the contempt order when Congress resumes session on 13 January, following a month-long holiday break.

This leniency, lawmakers said, was granted in the "spirit of Christmas.