REPRESENTATIVE Alfredo Benitez (3rd district, Negros Occidential) and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III are pushing for the naming of the so called narco-politicians so that appropriate charges should be filed against them.
“I don't mind naming those politicians for as long as concerned authorities, like the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), have concrete evidence against them,” Benitez said.
He pointed out that the illegal drug problem is very hard to solve in the country.
The PDEA-Western Visayas confirmed that 13 candidates for the May 13 elections are in the government’s narco list.
They are running for congressman, governor, vice governor, mayor and vice mayor.
PDEA- Western Visayas Director Alex Tablate revealed that they are just waiting for the go signal from the PDEA National Office to release the names of the politicians.
He said those in the list have already been validated by the office.
“There are 13 narco-politicians in Western Visayas. That is based on our validation, but the number could increase depending on the validation of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other agencies,” Tablate said.
There were already previous shame tactics done including former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim’s “shame campaign” where he would label the houses of drug pushers.
Releasing the names of narco-politicians is like a shame campaign.
If the intelligence of the PNP, PDEA and other concerned authorities result in overwhelming evidence, they should name those politicians and file charges in court.
On the part of Pimentel, he said that people need to see the list of those narco-politicians.
“The people should know and those people on the said list should react and clear their names,” Pimentel said of the list that has been mentioned by authorities for a few years now.