PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he does not have any evidence against politicians he tagged as being involved in the illegal drug trade to convict them in court.
Taking again about his list of narco-politicians Monday, he said he only had enough information to establish probable cause.
“This is the drug industry. I cannot produce proof beyond reasonable doubt,” Duterte said.
He said, however, that he could not just leave the problem to fester, as the country is already a narco-state.
He added that the anti-drug campaign would continue “until the last pusher is out of the streets and the last drug lord is killed.’
In various speeches, Duterte said thousands of government officials, including congressmen, governors, mayors and barangay captains were in the final narco-list.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the President’s admission guaranteed that the administration would adhere to due process in the prosecution of drug cases.
In a separate speech, the President said he will impose next year a limit of two security officers per politician.
Having too many security officers, he said, made politicians arrogant.
“We all know these politicians, they have an army escort of two, they have police [escorts], so nobody would touch them. Every time they go to places, people would know that there is an idiot there pretending to be a big shot when he is not. He wants his presence felt by the crowd,” Duterte said in a speech during the 2016 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals & Organizations Overseas at Malacañang.
“So, when there is no security, they are afraid,” he added.
The President said starting next year, politicians will only be allowed to have two security officers.
In Cagayan de Oro City, one of the three political figures in Northern Mindanao mentioned by Duterte as being allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade is willing to submit himself to the authorities to prove he is innocent, Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano said Tuesday.
Wellie Lim, former mayor of Lugait town in Misamis Oriental, was tagged by Duterte as among those linked in the business of selling shabu in the region.
Earlier, the President named Iligan City’s Lawrence Cruz and Vicente Belmonte as some of the region’s political personalities who are in the narco-list.
Both Cruz and Belmonte used to serve as that city’s congressional representatives.
In a radio interview, Cruz denied being involved in the illegal drug trade as he feared he will end up like slain Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa who was gunned down by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-8 inside his cell.
Emano said Lim called him up Monday night and told the governor he was “worried” that his name was on the list.
He said Lim told him the allegation is not true. Lim and Emano are both members of Padayon Pilipino, a local political party based in Northern Mindanao.
“He even asked my advice on how to clear his name,” Emano said.
Also on Tuesday, the Justice Department gave the 25 policemen charged in the killing of Albuera Mayor Espinosa and a fellow inmate Raul Yap inside their jail cells in Baybay, Leyte last Nov. 5 a month to submit their respective counter-affidavits.
During the preliminary hearing at the Department of Justice on the multiple murder cases and other criminal cases filed against the policemen, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Lilian Doris Alejo ordered the respondents led by Supt. Marvin Marcos to submit their counter-affidavits on Jan. 23, 2017 on the killing of Espinosa and Yap.
The prosecutors gave the respondents copies of the complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation, which described the police operation as a rubout.