THEMISTOCLES, a famous philosopher once cried, “Strike, but hear me first!” Like some senators and the Comelec, I have no idea who are in the President’s narco-list, but I settle not to divulge their names that are often averred as smear campaign in this election period.
Without due process, the DILG will anytime soon release the names of 82 politicians supposedly linked to illegal drugs if President Rodrigo Roa Duterte nods.
The list, according to Malacañang, is collated into a full narco-list from the information given by the foreign intelligence counterparts via wiretaps.
If my memory serves me right, the same Malacañang announced sometime in mid-2018 about the Red October Plot where the source of information was also a friendly foreign country. Thanks mister source for sharing the wrong information, the Red October Plot was a tale. I wish the plan to release the narco-list sourced out from the same informant of the Red October Plot will not also happen.
Granting arguendo that the list is true, it can only be shared within the intelligence community while it is still subject for validation.
Even if this “shame list” is assembled from a legitimate source and not wiretapped, the timeliness issue and motive of posting in the walls of banters is capricious, whimsical and questionable. We are on campaign period and Election Day is two months away.
Had the DILG anticipated accommodating only untarnished politicians for the next set of elected officials, they should have calendared the filling of appropriate cases to the suspected persons in the list they kept for three years. So that by the time the filing of candidacy for the mid-term election commences, those who were charged and convicted will be disqualified from filing their candidacies.
Why resort to this lawless effort when the DILG is not yet desperate in this war against drugs?
The DILG is wrong in the bar of public opinion, much more in the courts of law when it insists that an “informed choice” is far more important than the “due process” for the narco-politicians. Because how the electorate could be given the accurate information they deserve in order to choose the right candidates when even the list is not yet validated?
Why use scapegoat to point blame when the government is not losing the war against drugs? This list is nothing but a junk found in the corner because this could never be a ground to disqualify a candidate who will be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
abrigodann@gmail.com