Vice President Leni Calls Drug Allegations Against Roxas, Drilon “Baseless”
The accusations of drug links involving former Liberal Party
(LP) presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II and Senator Franklin Drilon are
baseless, Vice President and LP chairman Maria Leonor Robredo said on Friday,
October 27.
Ricky Serenio, a confessed bagman of the Berya drug cartel,
submitted before the La Carlota City prosecutor’s office in Negros Occidental
on October 18 an affidavit identifying Drilon and Roxas a former Interior
secretary as protectors of Melvin Odicta Sr.
Malacañang denied that it is behind Berya’s testimony.
In a statement, Palace spokesman Ernesto Abella said the LP
was only “afaid of its own ghost” after it accused the Duterte administration
as behind Serenio’s claims.
“I don’t need to defend my colleagues because in the first
place, the allegations are baseless. If they have a case against them, then
they should file that case. But I don’t think they would need my help. They can
well defend themselves,” VP Robredo, a lawyer, said.
Odicta Sr., a suspected drug dealer, and his wife were shot
dead in August last year at Caticlan Jetty Port in Aklan.
Roxas has already denied Serenio’s accusation and called it
a desperate move.
Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson also on Friday expressed
doubts on the credibility of the confessed “bagman” who earlier tagged Drilon
and Senator Francis Pangilinan in illegal drug operations.
Lacson, a member of the Senate majority bloc, noted that he
knows Drilon and Roxas too well and for him it is improbable for them to be
involved in such activity.
In a speech late Thursday night at the 6th Philippine
Professional Summit in Manila Hotel, President Rodrigo Duterte said he has no
mercy for narco-politicians just a day after he threatened Iloilo City Mayor
Jed Mabilog that the latter would be the next.
“I really give orders to kill. When you have to destroy an
organization… Drugs is an organized crime,” the President said.
President Duterte earlier accused Mabilog of protecting drug
lords in Iloilo province.
Mabilog has denied the allegation.
The President’s consistent tirades against Mabilog prompted
him and his family to leave the country last September 11 for security reasons.
At least three mayors have been killed under the Duterte
administration’s war on drugs.
Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, Sr., his wife Susan
and 13 others were killed in a police raid in July, while Albuera, Leyte Mayor
Rolando Espinosa was killed by the police at 4 a.m. inside his cell in Baybay
City, Leyte sub-provincial jail in August 2016.
Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in
Maguindanao was also killed in October 2016 at 4:30 a.m. “based on information
that the group will transport illegal drugs to the Maguindanao and Cotabato
area.”
The President, however, clarified that he is not after
killing innocent people.
“This drug campaign is not at the expense of a person, whose
hands are raised, ready to surrender, kneeling. That is murder,” President Duterte,
a lawyer, said.
Source: The Manila Times
Vice President Leni Calls Drug Allegations Against Roxas, Drilon “Baseless”
Reviewed by Yen
on
October 30, 2017
Rating:
Post a Comment