PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has just given the go signal for the release of the list containing the names of politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade although Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino is of the view that the list may just cause chaos because they have not yet revalidated it.
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon also posited her view that the release of the list would be unfair to those candidates named therein and would be a form of negative campaigning by the government.
Be that as it may, these agencies would do well to realize that the war on drugs is now operating on borrowed time with only three more years before President Duterte will have to step down to be replaced by another. Digong has already announced that the remaining years of his war on drugs would be the most dangerous time for his entire campaign, and so perhaps for his opening salvo he decided to release the list of alleged narco-politicians operating in the country.
Is this unfair and some type of negative campaigning by the government?
Let us see. Those politicians named in the list and who are candidates in the coming elections will certainly claim that it is unfair to them because they stand to lose their popularity as well as the trust and confidence of their voters. But shouldn’t these voters also rightly deserve to be properly informed about their leaders for the next three years? It may well be that a certain narco-politician has been able to hide his illegal drug dealings from the knowledge of his constituency and voters and thus is able to maintain his innocent and angelic appearance to the public. The voters have a right to know who they will vote into public office.
The President in releasing the narco-politician list to the public is simply doing his job of informing the public.
The list of course is not a who’s-who of the President’s alleged enemies in politics nor the political foes of his politician supporters. Otherwise it would have contained also the names of some senatoriables critical to Digong. It is instead a list of the names of politicians allegedly or probably engaged in either offering protection to drug syndicates or are themselves involved in the selling of illegal drugs. The list would almost certainly be the result of a meticulous, almost thorough and definitive intelligence gathering operation by various government agencies involved in the illegal drug campaign. This is not a list crafted as an afterthought nor a fly-by-night operation.
While PDEA Chief Aquino may be personally against the release of the list to the public due to the lack of revalidation he might also understand the need to expose to the public the criminal acts being done by these politicians who are destroying the very lives of those they are supposed to protect.
Public service is a public trust. We can only hope that in the next elections we will have leaders who are neither financed or supported by illegal drug syndicates and who are adamant in refusing any kind of assistance or aid, whether monetary or otherwise, in their attempt to win a post in public office.