Winning ‘narco-politicians’ can’t pick local police chiefs

MANILA -- Politicians included on President Rodrigo Duterte’s narco-list and who ran and won in the May 13 mid-term elections will be stripped of the power to choose their local chiefs of police.

“I don’t think they were given the privilege of choosing. In fact, even their privilege of having security and until now, their authority and control over the local PNP are suspended,” PNP chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde told reporters in a press briefing Monday.

Albayalde said out of the 47 names on the list, 37 ran in the mid-term polls and 27 won, some of whom are elected mayors and governors for the first time.

Under Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, city and municipal mayors have the authority to choose the chief of police from a list of eligibles recommended by the provincial police director, preferably from the same province, city or municipality.

“We expect that whenever there are newly-elected local chief executives, they will choose their chief of police or provincial commanders. We respect that but then again, the ones they are requesting must be qualified,” Albayalde said in Filipino.

Albayalde earlier refused to reveal the names of the 27 politicians.

Last March, Duterte released the list containing the names of politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.

Albayalde said the investigation against the alleged narco-politicians will continue and they will gather solid pieces of evidence to be used in the filing of criminal and administrative charges against them.

“Well, continuous naman ang pag- iimbestiga sa kanila and as the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) has said, kapag merong nakitang

ebidensya laban sa kanila ( continuous investigation is ongoing against them and as the DILG has said, if pieces of evidence are found against them), they will file cases, both criminal and administrative,” he said.

He said the winning narco-politicians came from Central Luzon and Calabarzon ( Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon).