More anti-De Lima witnesses to recant

Some seven persons deprived of liberty have signified their intention to recant their testimonies against former senator Leila de Lima, saying they were just coerced to stand as witnesses against her.

The seven PDLs — German Agojo, Tomas Doniña, Jaime Patcho, Wu Tuan Yuan (aka Peter Co), Engelberto Durano, Jerry Pepino and Hans Anton Tan — on 17 November sent a letter to Presiding Judge Gener Gito of Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206, saying "we would like to recant our previous testimonies in the interest of truth and justice."

Gito is handling the last remaining drug case filed by the Department of Justice in February 2017 against De Lima and others.

The witnesses, who are serving their sentences at the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, told the judge, "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.'"

"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 statements made by us were devoid of lack of consent," their letter read.

The inmates requested 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 were the stabbing incidents that transpired at the NBP (New Bilibid Prison) premises in September 2016 that resulted in the actual death of one PDL and serious injuries to several others," the letter added.

The PDLs said that before they were forced to testify against De Lima, there was a series of attempts on their lives after they were transferred to the Philippine Marine Detention Facility in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, and the Custodial Detention Center in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

"We no longer desire to live with the knowledge that we allowed ourselves to become pawns or instruments of injustice. We wish to live lives of dignity, integrity and responsibility moving forward," they said.