Mayor Pamintuan dares Napolcom

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga — “It is an utterly absurd charge, and I challenge the Napolcom to immediately file charges against me if it has an iota of evidence that I am involved in drugs.” This was the challenge posed yesterday by Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan to the Napolcom after he was listed among 18 mayors stripped of police powers for alleged involvement in illegal drug trade/activity. “I was with the President in many occasions, the latest was about two weeks ago. Knowing him, he would have told me straight in [my] face if I were on his list of local officials supposedly into drugs, like he did to other mayors linked to drugs,” Pamintuan said. He stressed that his inclusion in the list not only maligned his reputation but also the city’s which he represents for a long time. (Franco G. Regala)