Lacson on PDEA’s village drug list: Dumb, cruel

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson criticized the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for baring the names of the 207 village officials included on the government list of politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.

“There are two words to describe the move of PDEA: it’s dumb and cruel,” Lacson, chair of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said in a press briefing Thursday.

Lacson stressed that the release of information could hamper law enforcement efforts as it forewarned the politicians on the list that they are now being investigated.

“Kung ikaw halimbawa nakalagay ang pangalan mo doon, itatapon mo ang ebidensyang pwedeng makuha sana sa iyo in flagrante delicto ng law enforcement agents na pwede mag-raid sa bahay mo o mag-entrap sa iyo,” he said.

The senator also cautioned PDEA in releasing intelligence reports.

“Cruel kasi 'di mo pwedeng sabihing validated ang intelligence report. Ang makaka-validate ng intel report ang kasong isampa na may supisyenteng ebidensya para masampahan ng kaso ang nakasaad o nakalagay sa intel report,” he said.

READ: 207 village officials on PDEA ‘narco-list’ amid fears of becoming death squad targets

PDEA on Monday maintained that the list—composed of 90 village chairmen and 117 councilors—was validated by the agency, Philippine National Police, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The release of the list linking politicians to the trade of illegal narcotics came two weeks before the village and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on May 14.

The move is to supposedly guide the public on who to vote for in the upcoming polls.

Human Rights Watch warned that the narco-list would endanger the lives of hundreds once it releases the list of candidates supposedly involved in the trade of illegal drugs.

“Far too many cases of those people who end up on lists of suspected drug personalities have ended up as victims of summary executions as we’ve seen in Duterte’s ‘drug war’ in the past 21 months,” HRW Asia Division researcher Carlos Conde said. 

But PDEA and the Department of the Interior and Local Government denied that the barangay “narco-list” would serve as a “hit-list.”

READ: HRW: Release of village ‘narco-list’ will worsen the bloodshed