Was it so hard to verify?

Last Monday, the Palace issued a statement on why Dionisio Santiago, former chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB). According to Harry Roque, the Palace spokesperson, Santiago was sacked for his trips to Vienna, Austria and the US in which he supposedly included his entire family, along with some “favored employees” from the DDB. In other words, he was sacked because of corruption. Roque added that Santiago brought a “Girl Friday” with him, implying impropriety. He also supposedly received a house from the Parojinogs, in exchange for favorable actions with regards to illegal drugs, back when he was with PDEA. Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. was killed in a PNP operation. That was Monday.

The accusations leveled at Santiago were serious. So many are wondering that if the questionable trips were conducted last September and October, why were they only made known more than a month later, and why was he not sacked there and then, which Duterte has done on several holdovers from the past administration. Note that Duterte also gave a different reason for asking Santiago to resign. He was apparently hurt at his comments that the mega drug rehab center in Nueva Ecija was a mistake and impractical. Many are also asking how Santiago could defend himself from the supposed house he received from the Parojinogs, if most of them have already been killed. Santiago denied all the accusations, and hit back at Roque for accusing him in public without first verifying the facts.

Last Tuesday, the DDB union disowned that a complaint against Santiago was forwarded to President Duterte. The letter was even shown to the media, complete with a name behind the complaint. Was it so hard for the Palace to verify the identity of the complainant, before releasing it to the public? So now, Roque’s statement is that they did not immediately accept the allegations as “gospel truth,” and further emphasizing that President Duterte has the final word of who needs to be sacked from the government, if issues of trust are in question. But of course, they just wanted to get the word out immediately to the media, where in the eyes of Duterte’s rabid supporters, Santiago guilt is already established. I wonder just how many fake accusations have been leveled at people, especially against known critics of this administration. Most recently, Sen. Antonio Trillanes filed a case of cyber-libel against a known blogger-supporter of Duterte, for propagating a story already debunked by a newspaper that President Trump called the senator a “narco.” Another case of fake news being propagated to besmirch a vocal critic of this administration, particularly President Duterte? The courts will now decide, and may set a precedent on what is going on today. Something we did not see in past administrations.