Palace: Pols in PDEA narco list face iron fist

Politicians in the so-called narco list of President Duterte would be treated with an “iron fist” and pay for their wrongdoings in prison, Malacañang warned yesterday.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) re- vealed over the weekend that 87 politicians are in Duterte’s list of officials with alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade, a problem that is said to have affected four million Filipinos.

The agency did not identify the politicians but said that

their positions ranged from vice mayor to congressman.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar assured the public that officials involved in illicit drugs trade would be put behind bars.

“All the names in the list should be subjected to a vetting process so we can be sure that they are really involved in illegal drugs. Once the President proves their involvement, they will be treated with an iron fist,” Andanar said in an interview with radio station dzRB on Saturday.

“We can be sure that they will be put behind bars and they will pay for their sins,” he added.

The President would not waver in his anti-illegal drugs campaign, one of his main platforms that enabled him to beat his more moneyed rivals during the 2016 presidential race, Andanar said.

The narco list has about 6,000 names, including judges, policemen and barangay officials. None of the Cabinet members are in the list, Andanar claimed.

Three mayors in the narco list have been killed in separate law enforcement operations.

Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa was killed in what policemen claimed was a shootout in his prison cell in November last year. But some jail guards claimed to have heard the mayor begging for his life before he died.

A month earlier, Datu Saudi, Maguindanao Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom died in an armed encounter in North Cotabato also last year.

Last July, Ozamiz City mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., his wife Susan, his brother board member Octavio Parojinog Jr. and sister Mona were killed in an antidrug raid at the compound of the political clan.