The House quad committee lifted the contempt order against former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Wilkins Villanueva on Tuesday, one week after he served his jail time in the House of Representatives.
The contempt order was imposed after lawmakers accused Villanueva of “lying” under oath during their investigation on 12 December into the proliferation of narcotics and drug smuggling.
Villanueva sought the panel’s consideration to lift the contempt order it issued against him. In his motion, he contended that he had fully cooperated with the congressional probe by attending hearings whenever he was summoned by the committee.
He also asserted that he voluntarily answered all the queries and did not refuse to respond to the relevant questions posed by lawmakers.
Aside from allegedly lying, the quad committee cited Villanueva in contempt for his “refusal to answer relevant questions.” He was supposed to be detained at the House on 12 December until the committee wrapped up the investigation.
The panel, however, deferred his detention on 13 January “in the spirit of Christmas.”
“I was the one who moved to cite ex-General Wilkins in contempt, and I appreciate his gesture of seeking reconsideration, unlike Col. [Hector] Grijaldo, who resorted to forum shopping,” mega-panel co-chair Stephen Paduano said.
The lawmaker later moved to lift the contempt order against Villanueva after reading the latter’s appeal, assuring that he would now “cooperate and answer the queries truthfully.”
To recall, Villanueva drew the ire of lawmakers for allegedly refusing to directly answer whether he had interrogated the wife of the reported financier of a raided shabu laboratory in Dumoy, Davao City, on New Year’s Eve 2004. The alleged financier was identified as Allan Sy, and his wife was Jed Pilapil-Sy.
The raid allegedly led to the fabrication of criminal charges against Jed Sy, who was arrested without a warrant in 2005 and continues to serve her prison sentence to this day.
Villanueva, who was also the PDEA regional head for Northern Mindanao at the time, initially insisted that his subordinates only “interviewed” Mrs. Sy. However, he later admitted that they subjected her to warrantless arrest.
Villanueva had denied knowing how long Mrs. Sy, whom they considered a person of interest at the time, was held in the PDEA’s office after the supposed interrogation. But lawmakers argued that Villanueva could not just feign ignorance, given that he was “the head of the agency” at the time.
Mrs. Sy earlier told lawmakers that PDEA “twisted” her statements to implicate her in the illegal drug trade. She claimed that PDEA made it appear that she was in cahoots with her husband as she was seen carrying boxes of chemicals and drugs, which she claimed were newly bought appliances for their rental house.
Mr. Sy was reportedly the “manager" of the 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. Mrs. Sy contended that she did not know of her husband’s involvement in the illegal drug trade.