Palace downplays Espenido’s inclusion in narco list

MANILA, Philippines — The credibility of the Duterte administration’s war against drugs has not suffered with the recent inclusion of sacked Bacolod police officer Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido in the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s drug list, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said yesterday.

“Oh, yes! After all, it’s their duty to gather intelligence, but of course, sometimes they also commit some errors,” Panelo said when asked if the government’s war on drugs remains credible.

The Palace spokesman noted that the narco list has been purged anew, this time removing over 100 policemen initially included in the list but who turned out to not be involved in illegal drug operations.

“The other names which should not be there were already excluded, so that’s (drug list) credible,” he said.

Panelo added that Espenido could be right when he claimed that there was a failure of intelligence in the crafting of the PNP’s narco list, which reportedly included a police official with a star-rank.

“Could be true, because the President trusts him. It’s not unexpected that there may be some flaws in intelligence gathering. That happens,” Panelo said.

“Sometimes, they’re even intentional, you are being fed with the wrong info coming from those who are against a particular officer and if it gets into the system, it will come out,” he added.

Even the PNP narco list undergoes a double vetting process to ensure that the names as well as the alleged links to illegal drug operations are verified.

President Duterte has expressed confidence in Espenido, who was instrumental in neutralizing some members of the Parojinog clan and their supporters in Ozamiz City in 2017 that led to the killing of 15 people, including mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr.

Just like Duterte, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa does not believe that Espenido is involved in illegal drugs, despite the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s confirmation of his inclusion in the narco list.

Dela Rosa expressed confidence that Espenido will be able to eventually clear his name.

The senator suspected that some big-time drug lords may be behind the dirty tricks to get back at Espenido, considered as the “poster boy” of Duterte’s intensified anti-drug operations.

Dela Rosa said Espenido may have stepped into the operations of some narco cops assigned in the intelligence units who could have made the derogatory reports against him.

“As a police officer active in the war on drugs, other narco cops detailed with the intelligence office may have taken advantage of their position to get back at him by creating derogatory reports against him,” Dela Rosa added. – With Emmanuel Tupas, Cecille Suerte Felipe