New narco list out after Vietnam trip

MANILA, Philippines – President Duterte will reveal more names of officials with suspected links to the illegal drug trade after his two-day visit to Vietnam amid doubts being raised on the credibility of information being fed to him after some names were mistakenly included in one of his narco-lists.

Duterte said the third list, consisting of about 1,000 names, included lawmakers, local executives, barangay officials and members of the judiciary.

“The latest, I hope I will (reveal), Inshallah (God willing), upon my return (from Vietnam),” the President said in a press conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 before leaving for Hanoi for a two-day working visit.

“I will have one session with the media and I will read (the names). This would be again about the judges, some congressmen, mayors, there are a lot of them, barangay captains, almost all, and the police, military one or two,” he added.

In previous speeches, Duterte said the third list contained the names of about 40 judges and several Chinese individuals and barangay captains. He said he was leaving it to the military and police to deal with the suspected drug personalities. 

The President has so far tagged more than 160 incumbent and retired local executives, lawmakers, uniformed men and judges in the narcotics trade.

Duterte said the shame campaign was meant to inform the public about the true state of the country. Critics argue, however, that the naming of suspected drug offenders violates due process.

Duterte had to apologize to former Pangasinan governor and now 5th District Rep. Amado Espino Jr., former provincial administrator Rafael Baraan and board member Raul Sison on Tuesday for being included in the drug matrix he presented last month, which showed Sen. Leila de Lima, whom he accused of benefitting from drug operations at the New Bilibid Prison, at the top of the matrix.

Duterte said there were lapses in the verification of names in his drug matrix. “I will not pretend that I am perfect. I have so many faults in life,” Duterte said.

Aside from De Lima, also included in the matrix was her former driver Ronnie Dayan. Duterte, however, did not apologize to them, saying there was enough evidence linking them to illegal drugs.

Confidential

But Sen. Panfilo Lacson and De Lima said Duterte’s admission about the mistake would put the credibility of all narco-lists to the test.

In the first place, Lacson said it was wrong for the President to come out with the details of the intelligence reports he was receiving about the officials and law enforcement personnel allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.

“An intelligence report must be treated as confidential, even as a secret or top secret document, depending on its security classification. A narco-list, just like an ‘order of battle,’ is a product of an intelligence workshop and is disseminated only to personnel with the corresponding security clearance,” Lacson said.

“Hence, making it public would not only warn those in the list, thus jeopardizing any ongoing intelligence operations, but also unnecessarily shame or put their lives at risk. Having said that, it may also be unfair to those who may not be correctly tagged as committing the wrongdoings as described in the intelligence document,” he added.

When the President admitted that he made a mistake and apologized, Lacson said it also damaged the credibility of every other narco-list  in his possession.

“It goes without saying that the credibility of that list and all other narco-lists involving other sectors for that matter have now become doubtful. An immediate review of all the narco-lists is in order,” Lacson said.

“As I said, the President or any official making a classified document public is ill-advised and will not serve the purpose for which it was prepared,” he added.

But Duterte maintained his apology to the three officials did not undermine the credibility of his drug list.

“I said it is my duty to tell the nation what’s happening but it is also my duty that if I commit wrong, I should apologize. That is the way to go in this world,” the President said.  

“As a lawyer, when you make public a certain wrong against a person, you’d have effectively destroyed his reputation. So fair is fair. I have committed a lot of mistakes in my life,” he added.