PUBLIO J. BRIONES III:

The current administration has named public officials suspected of having links to the illegal drugs trade without offering any evidence or charging them in court. PDEA 7, though, refuses to divulge the identities of the 20 suspected narcopoliticians in Cebu and the 20 others in the region. Briones agrees with the agency, He believes that an official can only be “outed” once a case is lodged against him, or her.

The Philippines is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was drafted by the United Nations in 1948. One of its fundamental rights is the presumption of innocence. To those who don’t know, it’s the principle that a person must be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Sounds straightforward, right?

Wrong.

Many people still can’t get it through their thick skulls that the burden of proof falls on the one who declares, not on the one who denies. In Latin, “ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat.”

(If you’re impressed that I’m well versed in a dead language, don’t be. I got if from Wikipedia.)

To those who are wondering why authorities are hesitant to identify the 20 barangay officials in Cebu who allegedly have links to illegal drugs, this is why. Or, at least, one of the reasons why. Actually, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 Director Emerson Margate is still waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte’s go-signal to reveal the names of these alleged narcopoliticians.

The agency also still needs to secure a copy of the list of officials who already filed their certificates of candidacy so it can check who among them are engaged in the illegal drugs trade.

So an outing, for now, is out of the question. Even the director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) 7, Atty. Veronico Petalcorin, would not touch the subject, leaving the matter in the hands of PDEA and the police.

“We don’t have guidelines so we don’t know how to address the matter. Being on a narcolist is not grounds for disqualification. But if they file a case against the officials and the officials are found guilty, then that is grounds for disqualification,” Petalcorin said in Cebuano. Are we all on the same page?

It won’t do any good to say that so and so has his hands in the drug jar unless he, or she, is charged and convicted in court.

And for that to happen, the prosecution must first ensure that its case is airtight. That it has gathered enough evidence against the accused. That it has done so using the right procedure because it doesn’t want the case to be dismissed because of a mere technicality.

After all, how many of the so-called narcopoliticians who had been outed have been convicted?

For several months, former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama tried to salvage his reputation when his name cropped up on Duterte’s drug list. He denied, and denied, and denied, to no avail

Apparently, this was not enough to convince Malacañang to retract even though it never presented any evidence to prove its allegations. Or filed a case against him.

And even if he is absolved by the President, which, until now, he has not, it’s too late. The damage has been done.

So it’s understandable why authorities are tiptoeing around the subject. They want to maintain a modicum of credibility.

It won’t do any good to say that so and so has his hands in the drug jar unless he, or she, is charged and convicted in court