Heavier penalties against lying witnesses pushed
Credit to Author: Bernadette Tamayo| Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:18:02 +0000
SEN. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday reiterated the need to pass a law that would impose heavier penalties on those found guilty of perjury or false testimony.
The senator made the call after lawyer Jude Josue Sabio expressed intention to withdraw the communication he filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) containing the alleged human rights abuses committed by President Rodrigo Duterte in his war on drugs.
Sabio said he would withdraw the case he filed against the President before the ICC, reportedly because the case he initially filed was politically motivated.
“What do lawyer Jude Sabio, Peter Joemel ‘Bikoy’ Advincula, Rodney ‘Ninja Cop’ Baloyo, Edgar Matobato, Arturo Lascañas, Cezar Mancao 2nd, and Mary ‘Rosebud’ Ong have in common?” Lacson asked.
“They are all reasons for the need of a stronger law that would impose heavier penalties on lying witnesses — including public officials and employees who may be behind them,” Lacson said.
“Naging tig-singkong duling na lang ang pagsisinungaling under oath sa Pilipinas (Lying under oath in the Philippines has become an ordinary thing). That is why there is a compelling need for a stronger perjury law,” he said.
Lacson refiled in 2019 a bill seeking heavier penalties against lying witnesses.
Through Senate Bill (SB) 28, Lacson wants to give lying witnesses, including public officials and employees who may be behind them, “a dose of their own medicine.”
“Our present perjury law only carries a prison term of six months up to two years and two months. With a penalty that light, we can expect lying witnesses not only in Senate hearings but even before the courts,” he said.
This is “a matter of punishing not personalities but the act of giving false testimony,” he added.
Last year, Lacson scored Maj. Rodney Baloyo for giving false testimony before the Senate investigation on “ninja cops,” and moved that he be cited for contempt.
He also cited the case of Advincula, who attempted to link Duterte’s family to the drug trade, but recanted his claims and said he was used for political ends.
These are aside from the harassment Lacson personally experienced due to the claims of lying witnesses such as Ador Mawanay in the early 2000s. Mawanay was one of the paid witnesses unleashed by the Arroyo administration obsessed with putting Lacson in jail.
“It is noteworthy that because of these untruthful and inconsistent statements, we have witnessed how some men were robbed of their youth and freedom for a long period of time only to be freed later on account that the reason for their incarceration was based on a ‘polluted source,’” Lacson said.
Under SB 28, anyone who gives false testimony in any criminal case shall suffer “the same penalty for the felony the defendant is being accused of.”
A public official or employee who ordered such a false testimony shall face the penalty for the felony the defendant is being accused of, in its maximum period, along with a fine of up to P1 million and perpetual absolute disqualification from any appointive or elective position in the government.