The list of candidates with suspected drug links may be released next week in line with the Filipinos’ right to information on matters of public concern as well as government’s duty to ensure public safety, Malacañang said yesterday.
President Duterte has approved the release of the narco-list ahead of the May elections during his conversation with Interior and Local Government Eduardo Año after the Cabinet meeting last Monday, according to presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo.
“From what I gather from Secretary Año, next week ang parang nasabi niya and we’ll be filing administrative
charges as well as criminal charges against those in the list,” Panelo said.
“While we appreciate and understand the well-meaning individuals saying that the release of the narco-
list may violate the presumption of innocence, we’d like to tell them that the Constitution gives the people the right to know matters of public concerns,” he said.
He said the public and the voters have the right to know “who these destroyers of society are who have placed all of us to the brink.” They cannot – and must not – be given the authority to rule and govern for they will only hasten the destruction of our country, he added.
With the drug problem now a matter of national security, Panelo explained that the government was duty bound to take measure to ensure public safety.
“If those involved in the unlawful drug trade will be running the local governments then public safety is endangered and the Republic necessarily is placed on the precipice of destruction,” he said.
He said the list of suspected drug personalities was made after the law enforcement agencies’ “painstaking investigation and surveillance using modern technology and sourcing credible information from those who have been previously arrested and prosecuted as well as the thousands who voluntarily surrendered.”
Panelo said the right to information of the people gives the government the corollary duty of providing them such information especially when the same affects their lives and welfare. The country, he added, was “now in a state of narco-politics” amid the contamination of thousands of barangays. (Genalyn Kabiling)
