PDEA releases names of barangay officials on drug list

FILE: The list, according to PDEA chief Dir. Gen. Aaron Aquino, included 207 names of barangay officials, with 90 barangay chairmen and 117 councilors. (PNA photo by Joey Razon)

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Monday, April 30, revealed the names of barangay officials involved in illegal drug trade.

The list, according to PDEA chief Dir. Gen. Aaron Aquino, included 207 names of barangay officials, with 90 barangay chairmen and 117 councilors.

He added that “some of the officials on the list are users, some are pushers, some are even drug lords but most are protectors.”

Aquino said that Bicol Region has the most number of officials on the list with 70, followed by CARAGA with 34, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 13.

The filing of charges against these officials, Aquino said, should be expected in a “week or two.”

The agency’s chief also assured that the release of names of those barangay officials will not serve as a hit list, maintaining that the said list was validated by PDEA, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Intelligence Coordination Agency (NICA), and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

“This was validated on the ground. There is no truth that this will serve as hitlist. It will not,” Aquino said in a press conference at PDEA-DDB headquarters.

“We want to be legitimate in our operations, we want our operations to be transparent,” he added.

Aquino stressed that the PNP and other units involved in the operations will make sure that those village officials  will be given “protection that no one will harm them.”

Aside from the 207 barangay officials, there are still 274 village executives being subjected to validation. But once the PDEA has verified it, those names will also be revealed to the public.

This development came just a few weeks before the May 14 village polls.

Aquino said last week that he was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte to disclosed the names of those barangay officials linked to illegal drugs. However, Duterte backtracked on his directive on Sunday, April 29, saying that it is not yet time to bare those names as he wanted “to get back all of those who want to come back.”

The Chief Executive did not give any explanation for his decision. Instead, he gave another warning to criminals and illegal drug users.