{"id":205371,"date":"2019-03-05T23:28:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T04:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=205371"},"modified":"2019-03-05T23:28:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T04:28:09","slug":"dilg-to-file-charges-vs-narco-politicians-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/05\/dilg-to-file-charges-vs-narco-politicians-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"DILG to file charges vs. \u2018narco-politicians\u2019: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this assurance following concerns that releasing a list of politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade violates their right to due process. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will file administrative and criminal charges against politicians found on the \u201cnarco-list\u201d, Malaca\u00f1ang said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this assurance following concerns that releasing a list of politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade violates their right to due process.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o has bared that his department will release the \u201cnarco-list\u201d next week while charges may be filed simultaneously.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I gather from Secretary A\u00f1o, next week\u00a0ang parang nasabi niya<\/em>\u00a0(what he told me is next week) and he will be filing administrative charges, as well as criminal charges against those on the list. Either simultaneous or (it) doesn\u2019t matter really\u00a0kung ano mauna<\/em>\u00a0(which comes first),\u201d he said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Panelo further said the filing of administrative and criminal charges may include suspension of the involved \u201cnarco-politicians\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you run for public office, everything is fair game. You open yourself to criticism,\u00a0kakalkalin lahat yung buhay mo diyan. So nung pumasok sila diyan<\/em>\u00a0(they\u2019ll dig up everything about your life. So when they entered the situation), they already took the risk of being exposed if they are involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Right to know<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo reiterated that releasing the \u201cnarco-list\u201d would benefit the voters because it would give them the right to know \u201cmatters of public concern,\u201d especially those that concern their lives and welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget that the people have the right to be informed and more importantly, it\u2019s the duty of the government to protect the citizenry from harm and as we know the drug industry has harmed us a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that waiting for charges to be filed before releasing the list would defeat the purpose of informing voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot let the people wait because it takes time filing charges. By the time you file charges,\u00a0baka na-elect na yung mga \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(the \u2018narco-politicians\u2019 might have already been elected),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow people to run local governments or barangays by destroyers of society. People have the right to know,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said he has no personal knowledge of the personalities mentioned in the \u201cnarco-list\u201d but noted that he would not be surprised should there be names of both political allies and opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not know the names but I will not be surprised if you are involved,\u201d he said, reiterating that the \u201cnarco-list\u201d has been verified by law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

Intel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, bared that law enforcement agencies have verified the personalities on the list through various means, such as relying on surrenderers\u2019 testimonies and surveillance.<\/p>\n

Citing the President, he said foreign governments have also provided intelligence reports relative to criminal activities in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng mga nagpo-provide sa atin, sa ibang bansa. Ang magagaling diyan<\/em>\u00a0Israel, America, Russia, China (The ones providing us with intelligence are from other countries. They\u2019re coming from Israel, America, Russia, China),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have the capability. We don\u2019t have that kind of equipment — and I\u2019ve got that from the President himself when he said\u00a0na may nagpo-provide ng impormasyon sa atin<\/em>\u00a0(that there are countries providing us with information),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said he sees nothing wrong with countries helping one another in fighting terrorism and criminality.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiguro<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps) in the course of this cooperation, nagbibigay sila ng impormasyon (they\u2019re giving us information),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Panelo also emphasized that no law states that it is illegal to share intelligence reports among countries if they are used to track down criminal activities.<\/p>\n

“If it pinpoints a criminal activity, and the basis of that, you surveil the person subject of such information —\u00a0hindi masama iyon<\/em>\u00a0(that\u2019s not wrong),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be thankful we are being provided with information relative to criminal activities in this country. We should be thankful because we will be destroying the criminal activities because of information given us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will file administrative and criminal charges against politicians found on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":186205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}