MANILA, Philippines - Without identifying the lawmakers, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez confirmed yesterday that two incumbent members of the House of Representatives are included in President Duterte’s list of officials allegedly involved in illegal drugs.
“There are two and they are incumbent,” Alvarez, a Davao del Norte congressman, told reporters. He, however, has not yet talked to the two about the issue.
Alvarez refused to give details, but said the Duterte report has been validated and that one of the two lawmakers hails from Mindanao – the same region where he and Duterte belong.
He clarified that former three-term Pangasinan governor and now Rep. Amado Espino Jr. has been removed from the drug list. “Wala na, Åwala na siya duon,” he said.
Shortly after he assumed office in mid-2016, Duterte named Espino as one of those involved in the proliferation of drugs, but the President publicly apologized a few months later after he learned that his information turned out to be erroneous.
In various forums, Duterte has repeatedly stated that he gave a copy of his thick documents detailing the links to illegal drugs of both elected and appointed officials to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Alvarez.
Alvarez said he cannot do anything yet to his fellow House members until charges have been filed, either in the prosecutor’s office or in the courts, should there be any.
Duterte said he is about to meet provincial governors anytime this week to discuss the list.
The President made the disclosure after he warned what he termed as “narco mayors” and reportedly gave the go-signal to their chiefs of police to kill them if they continue with their illegal activities.
Duterte issued the same warning to governors, who he said can either be ambushed or poisoned if they don’t stop their involvement in illegal drugs.
He said he wanted to discuss with all the 81 governors his relentless campaign against illegal drugs even if it would cost him his position, lamenting that more than 5,000 government officials, including some police officers, are identified in a narco list that he keeps.
“I’d be calling the governors. I’d really tell them, ‘you tell your barangay captains, you have supervisory powers on cities under you, those that are not yet charter cities, you tell the mayors,’” Duterte told businessmen in Davao City over the weekend.
While he knew he could not give governors a lecture, he said he would tell them, “Do not be complacent with me, sons of b******. I will really kill you. Believe me. I will find you and ambush or I’ll poison you.”
He showed businessmen a list of those supposedly involved in the drug trade in the country.
Last week, Duterte warned mayors involved in the illegal drug trade that they would be killed if they do not resign. He said he would continue to protect the nation from illegal drugs even if he goes down in history as a butcher.
In his previous speeches, Duterte said about 2,000 barangay captains, mayors, a few governors and congressmen, and some judges were included in the list of officials with alleged connections to drug syndicates.