PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to name the barangay officials included in the list of people involved in the trade in illegal drugs, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Thursday.
He said Duterte gave the order to eject the village officials involved in illegal drugs.
He said Duterte had ordered PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino to release the names of the officials in the so-called narco-list or drug-watchlist.
In other developments:
• The Philippine National Police on Thursday said it was “80 percent” done preparing reports on the thousands of deaths being attributed to the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
“I was informed by the DIDM [Directorate for Investigation Detective Management] that their compliance was 80 percent,” PNP spokesman John Bulalacao told reporters.
He said the PNP had been complying with the Supreme Court’s order to submit its documents on the drug war.
*Rep. Lito Atienza on Thursday backed Duterte’s order to the PDEA to release the so-called barangay narco-list.
“If there is such a list, then it is PDEA’s responsibility to come out with it so that all those barangay officials who are in any way connected with drug pushing or involved in the narcotics trade in their communities would be exposed, and don’t get elected anymore,” Atienza said.
“It is time to purify their ranks and weed out all those undesirables.”
Roque said barangay officials could object to the President’s order but the voters were entitled to this information.
“I confirm that the order was given and again that’s within the powers of the Executive: to warn the public on the possible drug personalities who may be elected into public office,” Roque said.
“That’s a judgment call of the President. They could object and object but the voters are entitled to this information.”
He said Aquino had confirmed that 211 barangay officials were on the list and the names would be released to the public this week, or barely two weeks before the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on May 14.
“The list came from all intelligence units. These 211 are validated. They are involved in illegal drugs,” Aquino said.
Meanwhile, Roque said the Philippine government was grateful to China’s support for the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs. “If you will recall, during the President’s state visit to China last October 2016 we signed the protocol on cooperation between the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China,” Roque said.