Marcelino denies being coerced to testify vs. De Lima

Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, a former anti-drug agent who is facing drug-related charges, on Thursday denied Senator Leila de Lima's claim that he was being coerced to testify against her.

"Akin pong categorically dine-deny na may nag-pressure or nananakot or nag-coerce sa akin from the side of the government upang magsalita ako laban [kay De Lima]," Marcelino said in a news conference.

De Lima, in a press conference earlier in the day, claimed she received two forwarded text messages from a common friend allegedly coming from Marcelino.

She said the text messages stated that Marcelino was being convinced by some groups to make "fabricated stories" against her or else the Department of Justice would reopen his illegal drugs case.

Marcelino then supposedly replied in the text message that he will not be swayed to testify against the senator.

"I have no reason to doubt what was forwarded to me from Colonel Marcelino na iniipit siya para ituro whatever it is na itututuro nila sa akin," said De Lima, a former Justice secretary who is being linked to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison.

In his press conference, Marcelino said his relationship with De Lima is purely professional as they both served in the Department of Justice. "I worked with her but not necessarily for her at napaka-professional ang pagtatrabaho namin na yun." 

"Ang relation namin ni Sen. De Lima ay very professional. Nagtrabaho lang ako under sa DOJ. Wala po akong kinakampihan. Wala akong pinapanigan. Ang tanging dinadala ko lang ho ay yung aking nalalaman base sa katotohanan," he added.

Marcelino, a former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agent, said the text messages read by De Lima were messages sent to his mistah, and were part of his privileged communication.

"I did not know Sen. De Lima would disclose to the public my text messages to my mistah," Marcelino said, adding the messages were on the context of the reopening of his case which he called as a "midnight resolution."

Reacting to Marcelino's statement, De Lima said divulging the text messages to the public had the clearance of her source. She said Marcelino should clarify the change in his “tone.”

“I think he has to clarify that kung bakit iba na ang tono and then [cleared] ko naman ‘yun sa mistah niya na pwede ko ba i-reveal. Nagtataka ako bakit ngayon, andyan na siya eh he’s supposed to be in hiding,” De Lima said.

De Lima said her source was “rather really close” to Marcelino.

She also admitted that he visited Marcelino one time at the PNP Custodial Center. She said she was already a senator then.

"Ni-request niya yun because nagreklamo siya na tumatagal yung kaso niya na at the meantime he is detained, so I visited him and then he gave me some records about his cases. Ang pakiusap niya is to resolve na ng DOJ," she said.

De Lima said she then called up the prosecutor general, who told her that the case was still being evaluated.

"That’s all. That’s the nature of the help I extended to him noong binata ko siya sa kulungan," she said. —Joseph Tristan Roxas and Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez/KBK, GMA News