{"id":245297,"date":"2020-02-18T19:37:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T00:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=245297"},"modified":"2020-02-18T19:37:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T00:37:37","slug":"flaws-in-intel-on-drug-watchlist-sometimes-intentional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/18\/flaws-in-intel-on-drug-watchlist-sometimes-intentional\/","title":{"rendered":"Flaws in intel on drug watchlist \u2018sometimes\u2019 intentional"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, said Espenido\u2019s claim \u201ccould be true\u201d because he continues to have the trust and confidence of Duterte. (File photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday said failure of intelligence gathering could have been done intentionally to wrongfully include Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido on the President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s drug watchlist.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Espenido, the cop who led major anti-drug operations against big-time suspects, claimed that his inclusion on the drug watchlist was a failure of intelligence.<\/p>\n

Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, said Espenido\u2019s claim \u201ccould be true\u201d because he continues to have the trust and confidence of Duterte.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not unexpected that there may be some flaws in intelligence gathering. That happens. Sometimes they\u2019re even intentional. You\u2019re being fed with the wrong info coming from those who are against a particular officer,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Asked if he considered Espenido as being singled out by his colleagues, Panelo said: \u201cCould be. Because the President says it\u2019s black propaganda as far as he\u2019s concerned so victim\u00a0nga siya<\/em>\u00a0(he really is a victim).\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he still considers Duterte\u2019s drug watchlist \u201ccredible\u201d despite striking out several police officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEh kung natanggal mo na yung mga di dapat isama e di<\/em>\u00a0credible. After all,\u00a0trabaho rin nila mag-<\/em>gather\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0intelligence. But\u00a0siyempre may nakakalusot na mali<\/em>\u00a0(If you removed those who shouldn\u2019t be included, then it\u2019s credible. After all, it\u2019s also their job to gather intelligence. But of course, some mistakes happen),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He believed that Espenido\u2019s contribution to the government\u2019s war on drugs affected several ninja cops or police officers who resell drugs seized in anti-drugs operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely\u00a0marami talaga siyang nasagasaan kaya napag-initan ng mga<\/em>\u00a0involved (Definitely he ran over a lot of people that\u2019s why he is being ganged up by those involved),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Panelo said Duterte\u2019s position on Espenido could still change depending on new intelligence information given to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng kaniyang posisyon<\/em>\u00a0(His position) on the basis of circumstances or info, intelligence info, information given to him; but if those circumstances changed, then necessarily, he will have to change his position,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte had several \u201cresources\u201d that showed that Espenido was \u201cclean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o said Espenido should have been stricken out of the watchlist after the intelligence was validated.<\/p>\n

He, however, said he is not clearing Espenido and that he will still have to go through the adjudication process, despite Malaca\u00f1ang\u2019s vouching for his non-inclusion on the list.<\/p>\n

Espenido made a name for himself after leading the operations against suspected narco-politicians, such as Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa and Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog.<\/p>\n

In 2016, he was the chief of police in Albuera when Espinosa, who was detained as a drug suspect, was shot dead inside the sub-provincial jail in Baybay City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday said failure of intelligence gathering could have been done intentionally to wrongfully include Lt. Col. Jovie …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":245298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245297","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\/245297","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=245297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245299,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245297\/revisions\/245299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}