NEGROS Occidental Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Wednesday, January 16, the sacked police officers and a Bacolod City councilor who were named by President Rodrigo Duterte in a bombshell at a birthday celebration of Leo Rey Yanson, Vallacar Transit Inc. president and chief executive officer, deserved their day in court.
He was there during the celebration and heard the President's pronouncement.
Before the President made his speech, he apologized to those who were attending the birthday celebration as he has something to tell them.
"We already know the style of the President. When he feels like saying something, he will say, regardless of what the occasion is. But mind you, before he made that announcement, he already apologized and said that he does not wish to sour up the celebration but he just have to manifest this. Then he started making those announcements," he said.
As the saying goes, “'One is innocent until proven guilty.' Obviously, the President has its own intelligence report but those who were mentioned should have their day in court," he said.
Meanwhile, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Western Visayas spokesperson David Garcia said the name of Bacolod City Councilor Ricardo Tan never appeared in their drug's watchlist.
It was never reported to PDEA his alleged involvement in illegal drugs, he said.
“The process of determining the involvement of a person or official starts from the informant where PDEA will process it through the Summary of Information (SOI). Once we validate such information, it becomes an intelligence information which will be included in our target list. But when we checked the name of Councilor Tan, we have not seen his name even in the SOI. We have no any holdings of his name. But we have to be very specific as to our holdings in the PDEA-6 (Western Visayas),” Garcia said.
He added that since the President has named him, PDEA will be investigating on it. The conduct of the investigation is automatic.
"But the investigation will take time because they will check on the background and his alleged extent of involvement if there is. If there is truth or no truth to it, it will come out in the result of the investigation. If he is not involve, we will make a report as to the non-involvement or the negative validation against the person. We will do that," he said.