The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Monday released the names of barangay officials included in the list of suspected drug offenders.
The ‘narco-list’ includes the names of 207 barangay officials, 90 of which are village captains while 117 are barangay councilors, PDEA chief Dir. Gen. Aaron Aquino said.
There are worries surfacing over the release of names, with the public claiming that this action could risk lives of the officials as the list could turn out to be a “hit list,” but the PDEA chief downplayed this.
Aquino said that it is not only his agency who did the verification of names, as the Philippine National Police, the National Intelligence Coordination Agency, and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) also took part in the validation.
He stressed that all authentication processing were done legally and not “on the ground.”
“This was validated on the ground. There is no truth that this will serve as hitlist,” Aquino said, assuring the public that those in the list will be given protection and will not be harmed.
DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 04/ 30 /18