The government’s fight against the illegal drug menace in the country has intensified as it vowed to weed out undesirable barangay officials involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Martin Diño warned that administrative charges would be filed against barangay executives who fail to create or make their Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (BADAC) fully operational until October 30.
In targeting the barangay officials, Diño said the familiarity of barangay chairmen and kagawads with the residents in their turfs would easily make it easier for law enforcement agencies to identify illegal drug personalities.
He said the “DILG can’t wait forever’’ for barangay officials to comply with President Duterte’s lawful order against illegal drugs.
Diño also vowed to crack the whip on corrupt or negligent DILG regional officials saying they have “a lot of explaining to do’’ over the barangays’ failure to make their BADACs fully functional.
“I will only sue them. Secretary [Eduardo] Año had earlier ordered them to monitor all barangays and conduct an inventory. Up to now, no report has reached my office,” Diño said.
He stressed barangay executives must lead the fight against illegal drugs and ensure that measures are being undertaken to implement the anti-illegal drugs campaign and programs.
“There should be a Badac desk in every barangay. There is no forever,” he added, referring to the reports to be submitted by the DILG regional offices and all barangays nationwide.
Clinging on the hope for the disqualification of drug personalities from running in next year’s midterm elections, the DILG said it will submit a copy of the list to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
DILG spokeman, Assistant Secretary Jonathan Malaya, said the department is set to provide the Comelec with a copy of the narco-list after the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) on October 17.
Although narco-politicians cannot be disqualified unless convicted with finality, Malaya said it will be up for the Comelec to make the next move.
Despite the growing objections from numerous legal luminaries, the DILG has insisted on its preference to have narco-politicians stricken off from the list of qualified political aspirants.
Aware of its legal impediments, Malaya said the DILG wants the electorate informed of the list of narco-politicians especially those with pending cases.
“Now if they are to be disqualified or not, that’s no longer the call of the department. It’s now the call of the Commission on Elections. We will reassess what we need to do. Perhaps, we may release the list to the public just like what we did during the last barangay elections,” he added.
The DILG found an ally in the person of newly-designated Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo.
Admitting that there is a slim chance that narco-politicians would be disqualified, Panelo said that the DILG still has the responsibility to divulge in public their findings regarding political wannabes dealing in illegal drug transactions.
“In the same way, when the President released a list of those names, he was implementing the duty imposed on him in the Constitution that people have the right to information. And since the President has all the resources in the world to have access to information, he felt that it was his duty to let the people know,” he added.
However, Panelo maintained that there are legal recourse for local officials wrongly accused of being involved in the drug trade.
“What I’m saying is we are governed by laws regardless of who is involved, we have to bow to the majesty of the law,” Panelo said.
Earlier, DILG officer-in-charge (OIC) Eduardo Año reported that since 2016, 300 local officials now facing administrative cases might be suspended and dismissed.
He added that 93 local officials are included in the narco-list, while 250 others have pending cases which are now being investigated by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Source of news: Manila Bulletin. Photo credit: Martin Diño/Facebook page.
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