By MARTIN SADONGDONG
The Philippine National Police (PNP) disclosed yesterday that over 90,000 candidates for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections 2018 have been proclaimed winners nationwide, but probe is underway for those who are included in the drug watch list.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde, in a press briefing at the National Election Monitoring and Action Center (NEMAC) at Camp Crame, said that they would conduct a case build-up if there are candidates in the drug watch list who were among the 92,756 proclaimed winners as of yesterday morning.
“We will check this one by one if they have involvement in any illegal drug activities,” Albayalde said.
As of writing, the PNP chief said he has already ordered the Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) and the regional drug enforcement units to look into the profile of the proclaimed winners and determine if they are in the watch list.
Once validated, Albayalde said they will conduct a case build-up against the proclaimed winners who are in the watch list.
“If needed, we can always conduct a ‘Tokhang’ (knock and plead) operation. They are not entitled to some kind of protection even if they win in the elections,” he explained.
“If they want to surrender as early as now, better. But like what I’ve said, they can always subject themselves for adjudication. If they don’t, then we can always conduct an operation,” he added.
Albayalde said they will be in close coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILH) and National Youth Commission (NYC) in the said validation.
“Our intelligence gathering will play a vital role because the PDEA cannot do it alone. They rely so much to us in terms of evidence and intelligence gathering,” he said.
He, however, clarified that they will not involve the Commission on Election (Comelec) anymore since their participation has been “finished” upon the proclamation of the winners.
Albayalde reiterated that winning candidates who will be found to be included in the watch list will be given due process as the PNP conducts its investigation.
A few days before the elections, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) released a “validated” drugs watch list where at least 216 baranggay officials were included in it.