PDEA regional director charged for grave threats

A regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was charged before the Sandiganbayan for allegedly threatening a subordinate.

In a criminal case filed on January 8, the Office of the Ombudsman charged PDEA Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) regional director Juvenal Azurin of Grave Threats as defined and penalized under Paragraph 2, Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

The crime was allegedly committed by Azurin during his term as the director of PDEA Region 2 (Cagayan Valley) in 2013.

Based on the information of the case, Azurin, on November 13, 2013, uttered threatening remarks against his subordinate, PDEA Region 2 agent Jaime “Bobot” Clave, by saying “Pu******* mo Clave ha,  pu******* mo Bobot, papatayin kita.”

Under Article 282 of the RPC, any person is considered liable for grave threats if he or she threatens the infliction of any wrongdoing upon a person’s or the person’s family’s life, honor or property.

In his affidavit submitted to the Ombudsman when it was still investigating his complaint, Clave said Azurin made the threat through a phone call around 12 midnight. Clave said that during the entire phone conversation, which lasted for about 10 minutes, Azurin kept on cursing him and threatening to kill him.

Clave said that after the conversation, he was agitated and never got back to sleep. Clave said he was so worried that he immediately entered the incident in the police blotter the following day as he believed that Azurin had the capacity to carry out his threat.

Clave further said that after the incident, Azurin issued an order dated November 15, 2013 relieving him of his post as a team leader of the PDEA Isabela and instead transferring him to PDEA Nueva Viscaya as team member.

Clave said that after the incident, he learned that he was being suspected by Azurin “to be the person who informed the Deputy Director General for Administration of matters which were injurious to the respondent’s reputation, [and] which matter, he presumed, prompted respondent to reassign him.”

In his reply to Clave’s affidavit, Azurin denied cursing and threatening the latter, but confirmed that the phone conversation transpired.

Azurin instead claimed that he called Clave to inform him in advance of his reassignment.  Azurin said the complaint was “maliciously filed” by Clave because of the reassignment.

However, in his reply to Azurin’s counter affidavit, Clave pointed out that the order reassigning him was issued only on November 15, yet the phone call transpired on November 13.

In its resolution finding probable cause to charge the respondent, the Ombudsman gave more weight on Clave’s testimony over that of Azurin’s.

“From the records of the case, this Office finds that all the elements of the crime are present. Complainant was able to show through the logs in his cellular phone that respondent called him at 12:10 in the morning of November 13, 2013, which call lasted for ten minutes and two seconds,” the Ombudsman resolution read.

“It so terrified the complainant that he had the incident entered, the very next day, into the police blotter as he believed that as the Regional Director of PDEA-RO2, respondent has the capacity to carry out the threat to kill him,” the Ombudsman added.

The Ombudsman’s resolution was attached to the case filed before the Sandiganbayan. — Elizabeth Marcelo/BM, GMA News