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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” Vice President Leni Calls Drug Allegations Against Roxas, Drilon “Baseless” Reviewed by Yen on October 30, 2017 Rating: 5

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