Some 32 barangay officials in Manila, from chairmen to councilors or kagawad, are currently in the drug watchlist provided by the local police to Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada, including the Malate barangay chief who was shot and killed last Friday.
This developed as the Manila Police District announced on Tuesday it has established the identity of the gunman who killed Barangay 751, Zone 81 chairman Angelito Sarmiento on May 26.
“We are monitoring 32 [barangay officials], Chairman Sarmiento was one of them,” Estrada said after being briefed by MPD director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel on the city police’s operations against illegal drugs.
“We are monitoring them, so in time we’ll come up with latest reports,” the mayor added.
Last October, Estrada bared he already has his own “narco-list” of city officials who are either drug users or in cahoots with drug traffickers
He said “a few” in the barangay level have already been confirmed to be on drugs.
Estrada ordered Coronel to continue investigating the case of Sarmiento, who was shot dead by unidentified assailants inside his house at the corner of Leyte and A. Francisco streets in Malate last Friday.
“We have been following up leads and it all point out to illegal drugs. He was involved in drug pushing and it appears the suspect took revenge on him,” Coronel pointed out.
He said they have identified the gunman but refused to divulge his identity to not jeopardize their followup operations.
As to the drug watchlist, Coronel confirmed the slain barangay chief was one of the 32 they have been closely watching.
Last November, Estrada ordered Manila’s 896 barangay chairmen to submit to drug testing following the previous month’s police raid at the Islamic Center in Quiapo.
At the district, then-Barangay 648 Chairman Faiz Macabato was killed after fighting with policemen who were about to serve an arrest warrant to his drug suspect-brother.
The results of the drug test will soon be released, according to the Manila Barangay Bureau and Manila Health Department.