Duterte To Reveal More Officials Link To Narcotics Trade After Vietnam Trip

About a thousand officials with suspected links to illegal drugs trade will be revealed after the two-day visit of President Rodrigo Duterte in Vietnam.

The list includes lawmakers, local executives, barangay officials and members of the judiciary.

Duterte will expose the drug list after his Vietnam trip, as part of his brutal crackdown on narcotics.

“The latest, I hope I will (reveal), Inshallah (God willing), upon my return (from Vietnam),” the president said.

“I will have one session with the media and I will read (the names). This would be again about the judges, some congressmen, mayors, there are a lot of them, barangay captains, almost all, and the police, military one or two,” he added.

Duterte has earlier revealed in his previous speeches, the third list that contains the names of about 40 judges and several Chinese individuals and barangay captains but dealing with the suspected drug personalities is up to the military and police.

More than 160 incumbent and retired local executives, lawmakers, uniformed men, judges and barangay captains had been tagged by the president in the illegal drugs trade.

Duterte has been facing a lot of criticisms for naming some suspected drug offenders and including them in the drugs list or matrix. Critics would even believed that he violate due process but he said the shame campaign was more on informing the public about the true state of the country.

Duterte, in a press conference in Arayat, Pampanga, has admitted that he could not explain the inclusion of the names of former Pangasinan governor and now fifth district Rep. Amado Espino Jr., former provincial administrator Rafael Baraan and board member Raul Sison in the list, he presented to the media last month.

This, prompted him to ask for an apology to the three individuals last Monday, for the lapses in the verification of some names in his drug matrix.

“It may be either intrigue or gossip or it was purposely done without really checking the validity (of information about their involvement to drugs),” Duterte told reporters last Monday.

“Somehow, we were negligent in counterchecking during the first report,” he said, adding that his apology to the three officials did not undermine the credibility of his drug list.

“I said it is my duty to tell the nation what’s happening but it is also my duty that if I commit wrong, I should apologize. That is the way to go in this world,” the president said.

“As a lawyer, when you make public a certain wrong against a person, you’d have effectively destroyed his reputation. So fair is fair. I have committed a lot of mistakes in my life,” he further said.

“I will not pretend that I am perfect. I have so many faults in life," he added.

Duterte, however, did not apologize for the inclusion of the names of Senator Leila de Lima, her former driver Ronnie Dayan and former justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan III in the drug matrix, as he believed that there is enough evidence linking them to illegal drugs.

Source: PHILIPPINE STAR