No special incentives will be given to government officials with untainted reputation on illegal drugs, Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella explained that government officials are supposed to do their jobs and avoid committing illegal activities anyway.
“First and foremost, I doubt if there will be incentives given for doing what was their job anyway or for not doing what they ought not to be doing,” Abella said in a Palace press briefing.
After releasing the first batch of the name-and-shame list of narco-politicians, Malacañang said it would come up with another list of clean local government executives or those who are not involved in the illegal drug trade.
Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Martin Andanar said it was proper “to celebrate the untainted reputation of local officials when it comes to illegal drugs.”
“Based on the list, there are more clean governors and mayors than LGU executives who are suspected to be in the illegal drugs business,” Andanar said.
Abella said the upcoming list of clean officials will be “based on intelligence reports which have been duly validated.”
More than 150 officials, including judges, local officials, and policemen, have been publicly identified by the President for alleged drug involvement. The concerned officials have been asked to subject themselves to investigation to clear their names.
Doubts, however, have been cast over the accuracy of the President’s list of narco-politicians since some were reportedly dead. Several officials implicated by the President have already denied allegations.
The President earlier defended that he deliberately read the list of narco-politicians, even if some of them were dead, to inform the public about the dangers in society. (Genalyn D. Kabiling)