Lawmaker asks SC to exclude him from ‘narco list’

MANILA, Philippines — Congressman-elect Vicente Veloso of Leyte has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a writ of habeas data to take his name out of President Duterte’s so-called narco list of suspected drug traffickers. 

In a 15-page petition, the former Court of Appeals justice argued that his inclusion in Duterte’s narco list and being tagged as one of the “narco politicians” in the country is not validated. 

Veloso, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, believes that it was a last-minute and malicious insertion, made not by the duly authorized personnel of concerned agencies on the ground, but by unscrupulous people elsewhere.

He also urged the SC justices to utilize and take judicial notice of the November 2016 testimony of confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa before the Senate, where he replied to a query of Sen. Panfilo Lacson if he indeed ever knew Veloso. 

“Sorry po, congressman. Hindi kita kilala, wala akong – hindi iyan naka – wala kaming transaction ni (I don’t know you we have no transaction),” Veloso quoted Espinosa, lifting transcripts from the Senate joint committee on public order and dangerous drugs, along with justice and human rights. 

Veloso, an administration legislator, also showed the SC the timeline bolstering his suspicion of an “insertion” primarily because a March 14 online article in the Manila Times at about 1 p.m. didn’t bear his name as among the alleged narco politicians. 

The report indicated there was “none” in Region 8 or Eastern Visayas, and only the names of his fellow congressmen Jesus Celeste of Pangasinan and Jeffrey Khonghun of Zambales were mentioned in the list. 

Four hours later (5 p.m.), however, a list was released to the Malacañang Press Corps, this time bearing his name (Vicente Sofronio Veloso), but with the word “none” still in the Eastern Visayas category matrix. 

“The belated listing is contradicted by the four agencies’ personnel on the ground,” Veloso stressed, noting that all four concerned agencies – Philipine National Police (PNP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) – have cleared him of the allegations. 

“All officers of PDEA, PNP, NICA and AFP categorically admitted that my name is not on their list of narco-politicians. Even DILG’s Region 8 Director Artemio Caneja attested that my name does not appear in their list,” he maintained. 

For his part, PDEA director-general Aaron Aquino wrote Veloso last April 5 that the narco list originated from the Office of the President and only the President can exclude any individual from the list.

Veloso, a former ACCRA law partner, said he was constrained to seek direct recourse on the basis that these are compelling matters and involve acts of the highest offices of the executive branch, a co-equal branch of government. 

He said he has exhausted all other plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law like seeking the help of fellow lawyer Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, who gave no immediate favorable action. 

“The successful, yet malicious and baseless, inclusion of my name in the March 14 list of narco politicians has emboldened my political enemies to commit various acts of harassment,” Veloso lamented. 

He revealed that in late March, unidentified armed men claiming to be police authorities attempted to enter his farm in San Miguel, Leyte “without the benefit of a search warrant.”