What if some mayors were really innocent?

First of all, it should be made clear that we support the president in his all-out war against drugs. All of our columns have expressed unqualified support and endorsement of his anti-drug crusade. To us, the president is on the right track. All Filipinos who have the greater interests of the country as their top concern should all rally behind our over-all leader.

But we hasten to interject a legitimate concern. What happens if there are really some of those named who are truly guiltless? For one, many people do believe that former Mayor Mike Rama could be innocent.

Almost all the mayors and other personalities who were named by the president denied their alleged involvement in drugs. That reaction is the most natural and most logical action that one accused of crime is expected to undertake. Many of them said that they were only implicated by their political enemies. A number of them went to the extent of alleging that they were precisely put in grave embarrassment because they supported the other presidential candidates. Our take on this is that I don't think that the president exposed mayors and other VIPs without any basis.

Despite his seeming brutality when he speaks and his brashness in manner and reputation, President DigongDuterte is really a good-natured man, a person of mercy and compassion. But he is driven by anger and spite against the nefarious drug menace, and the evils that drug addiction has brought to the whole nation.

The president is deeply concerned with hundreds of thousands of families that are broken and marriages that are shattered by the deleterious effects of drugs. Unlike previous presidents who ignored this social cancer, our president today is on war against duglords and their systemic human apparatus.

The president has the perfect right, nay the duty to the nation and to the people to unmask "narco" politicians, and their honor, reputation, and political career are too small a prize to pay in this war against drug syndicates.

The president has a duty to perform and a promise to fulfill. The Church cannot stop him in this crusade, in the name of human rights. No senator can derail his relentless drive and he doesn't care even if he is going to be impeached. Neither the human rights advocates nor the Commission on Human Rights can make the president go slow on this war.

There is just one thing that worries us. Supposed there are really innocent mayors and other personalities who are genuinely innocent. Supposed the sources of the intelligence reports have committed some grievous errors in identifying the suspects.

What if some intelligence operatives have some partisan or selfish intention? Indeed, what happens if there was an honest mix-up of identities?

Having said all these, we reiterate that the president is doing the right thing. It is just important that his advisers and staff should make sure that the president is given the truth.Chief Justice Ma Lourdes Sereno says so.

What matters most is that presidential decisions should be based on facts, no more, no less.

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