Plot to kill ex-DDB chief bared

MANILA, Philippines - At least two illegal drug syndicates operating in the country are out to “silence” former Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Vicente Sotto III, an official said yesterday.

DDB vice chairman Paul Oaminal said that according to intelligence reports, assassins have been tasked to neutralize Sotto, who resigned from his post last November to run for a Senate seat.

Oaminal said Sotto should be granted an exemption to the total gun ban that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will begin to implement on Jan. 10.

Illegal drug syndicates allegedly want Sotto dead because 23 shabu laboratories were dismantled during his term.

It was also during his time as DDB chairman that Amin Imam Boratong of the shabu tiangge in Pasig City was convicted while a police colonel was indicted as a co-accused in a La Union shabu laboratory case.

Sotto himself told The Star that the DDB action center received a tip “that two big illegal drug syndicates want me silenced and do not want me to get to the Senate.”

“I don’t really pay much attention to the threats. It’s common in my former position and my advocacy. It’s the intelligence report that’s bothering me,” he said.

Sotto said he carries a .40 caliber pistol as protection since he does not have bodyguards nor any police escorts.

“I can defend myself from my assassins if I am not disarmed. I’m going to Comelec tomorrow to plead my case,” he said.

Oaminal said Sotto has become a strategic target of illegal drug syndicates because he intends to amend certain provisions of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 in order to give the law more teeth.