President Rodrigo Duterte will reveal more names of officials with suspended links to the illegal drugs 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.
According to Duterte, the third list, consisting of about 1,000 names, included lawmakers, local executives, barangay officials and members of the judiciary.
“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.
Source: Philippine Star
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