President Rodrigo Duterte said it was not yet time for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to disclose the names of 211 barangay officials who are on its list of narco-politicians.
“Not yet. It is not time,” the President said. He did not elaborate.
PDEA director general Aaron Aquino earlier vowed to make public the barangay narco-list today (Monday).
Aquino said most officials in the list were drug protectors, but not all of them are running for the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
“The list came from all intelligence units. These 211 are validated—confirmed they are involved in illegal drugs,” Aquino said in a television interview.
Of the 211 in the drug list, 89 are barangay chairmen while the rest are kagawad or councilmen, the PDEA chief said.
A human rights group warned the impending release of narco-list will endanger the lives of the 211 barangay officials tagged by PDEA.
“The Duterte administration will be putting hundreds of people in danger if it released the names of barangay [village] officials it accuses of involvement in the illegal drugs trade,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
It said making the list public will deprive the suspects their right to due process.
“This virtual hit list violates due process and is an affront to the rule of law,” HRW said.
But Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said the disclosure of the narco-list will help educate voters.
“[This will] provide our electorate a chance to choose and decide who to vote for,” Albayalde said.