PDEA awaits OSG move on Veloso’s narco list removal

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will wait for the action of the Office of the Solicitor General on the order of the Court of Appeals (CA) to remove the name  of Leyte third district Rep. Vicente Veloso III from the narco list.

“We defer all our actions to the Office of the Solicitor General being the principal law office and legal defender of the government tasked to represent... its agencies and instrumentalities for the exhaustion of legal remedies available,” the PDEA said in a statement.

In a five-page decision, the CA’s former special eighth division directed the PDEA, Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and Department of the Interior and Local Government to destroy all documents, records and information pertaining to Veloso’s inclusion in the government’s drug watch list.

The PDEA gave assurance that the names of all the personalities who are included in the narco list undergo validation and adjudication.

“To show the government’s resolve in validating the list, no less than the heads of the concerned agencies who are members of the review, evaluation and management of inter-agency drug information database committee met last month to hasten and facilitate the adjudication process,” it said.

The PNP, for its part, said it is not affected by the order of the appellate court since it has no record of Veloso’s inclusion in the narco listk.