PDEA: 64 politicians in narco list seeking reelection

MANILA, Philippines — Sixty-four out of 82 politicians included in the government’s narco list of officials involved in illegal drugs are running for reelection in the midterm polls, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) disclosed yesterday.

“I think it’s 64. They filed their COCs (certificates of candidacy) and the remaining 18 decided not to file,” PDEA director general Aaron Aquino told reporters.

He said all the politicians are running for local elective positions.

Aquino said there used to be 83 narco politicians but one official was removed from the list after Mayor Norodin Salasal of Datu Salibo, Maguindanao was arrested last Feb. 24.

The PDEA has yet to finish the revalidation of the narco list, which is the reason why Aquino is against releasing the names of the politicians supposedly involved in illegal drugs.

“I don’t want the list to be revealed or disclosed but again, if it will be ordered by the President, I should abide by that,” he said.

President Duterte tasked Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año to make the list public.

If given a choice, Aquino prefers gathering evidence against the alleged narco-politicians for the filing of criminal charges against them.

He admitted gathering evidence against politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade is hard.

“It’s really hard to build cases against these politicians. It’s easy to say bakit hindi ka nag case buildup,” Aquino said, noting that they need to conduct an extensive financial investigation on people in the narco list.

NCRPO probe

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is conducting a deeper investigation on reports that some politicians running in the local polls in Metro Manila are involved in the illegal drug trade.

NCRPO chief Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar directed the five district directors and 38 station commanders to determine who among the candidates in the 37 congressional districts and 16 cities and one municipality are linked to illegal drugs.

“So far, we have no reports as of now that a politician in Metro Manila is involved in the illegal drugs trade,” Eleazar said in an interview.

“But we wanted to be sure as the government is set to reveal a list of politicians involved in illegal drugs and we do not want to be caught with our pants down.”

According to Eleazar, he would strictly follow the guidance of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde whether to reveal or not the list of politicians involved in the illegal drugs trade.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is not in favor of releasing the names of politicians in the list because this would be unfair to those included.

However, Malacañang claimed yesterday that they would release the list after several days of validation in the field.

As of yesterday, Eleazar said he had not received a list of politicians to be validated for their involvement in illegal drugs but just the same, he ordered a deeper probe as it would serve the interest of the voting public in the coming midterm elections.

He told the district directors and station commanders to gather strong evidence and their investigation should not be stained by political color.

“We should have strong evidence against politicians involved in the illegal drug trade so our cases could stand in court. We should not base our reports on hearsay,” he said.– With Non Alquitran