(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte denounced the public officials included in the narco-list, saying they committed treason against the Filipino people as a whole.
“This is actually treason. If you are in the government and you commit a crime, it could be likened in the olden times. It would be categorized as treason. You commit it against the people,” he explained.
Administrative cases have been filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) at the Office of the Ombudsman against the politicians involved in drugs.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission are also conducting their respective investigations.
President Duterte also said that that there are more names that he had not yet made public.
They are narco-politicians in the Visayas, greater Manila area and the CALABARZON region who are now being investigated.
-Counter-productive to name others in list while probe is ongoing –
He said that the publicly naming them now might be “counter-productive” as the ongoing investigation is still validating the evidence against them.
“So let us not lump them into one. We will continue to investigate the guys in the Visayas, especially in the greater Manila area, CALABARZON. These are heavily contaminated but any initial announcement now would I think be counter-productive,” he said.
“So limitahan lang muna natin but we might decide even on election day if we can… I asked for a revalidation just to make sure that the rules of fair play come into play,” he added.
President Duterte also assured the public that the “standards of ordinary justice” would be followed.
-Public interest higher than right to privacy-
He allayed concerns that baring the narco-list would violate a person’s right to privacy, saying that the right of a person to privacy must be subservient to the higher right or calling of public interest.
“’Yang freedom of expression, individual right, privacy and all…these things affect only one person. But the right to public interest, security matters, the right of a nation to exist must be paramount… Apparently, the time has come that we have to deal with the truth,” he noted.