THE regional office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Western Visayas is still trying to find out whether the national narco-list revealed by President Rodrigo Duterte includes judges and prosecutors in the region.
President Rodrigo Duterte last week said there are 13 judges and 10 prosecutors who are allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade. The national PDEA office is not inclined to name them because the priority is the filing of the cases against 46 narco-politicians earlier named by the President.
PDEA Regional Director Alex Tablate said the regional office has no authority to release the names of judges and prosecutors on the narco-list, even if it turns out that some of them are from Western Visayas.
"We just submit updates and the higher authorities are the only ones authorized to name them. It's not only PDEA that submitted the names but the different law enforcement agencies as well," Tablate said.
When asked if his office had submitted names of judges and prosecutors from Western Visayas, Tablate said he will check and confirm the list first with the intelligence group.
"Maybe next week I will be able to say if there are any," Tablate said.
PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said that the judges and prosecutors on the list are not yet a priority as they are focusing their validation efforts on the case build-up against the 46 politicians named by President Duterte.
Aquino said the list of judges, prosecutors and other drug personalities will still be validated.