‘Junior Duterte’ on antidrug list

SAN PEDRO CITY—The Batangas provincial police said it would revalidate intelligence reports implicating Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili in the illegal drug trade.

This after Halili, who earned the moniker “Junior Duterte” for his shame campaign against criminals and crime suspects in his city, denied involvement in the illegal drug trade.

President Duterte, a former Davao City mayor known for his hard-line stance against crime in his home city, vowed to rid the country of the drug menace.

As of Sept. 26, some 1,200 drug suspects had been killed and 19,194 arrested in the police’s antidrug operations, records from the Philippine National Police showed.

The PNP said 722,743 drug suspects (669,141 users and 53,601 pushers) have turned themselves in to the police. They signed documents vowing that they would reform.

Halili said he refused to a sign an “affidavit of undertaking,” a document signed by drug users and pushers who signified their interest to “surrender” to the police under the government’s antidrug drive, “Oplan Tokhang.”

“Ano ako, gago (What am I, stupid)?” Halili said, when asked about signing the affidavit.

The document was presented to him by Supt. Robert Baesa, city police chief, on Thursday last week.

In a telephone interview on Monday, Senior Supt. Leopoldo Cabanag, Batangas police director, said intelligence reports gathered from “many sources” in national government agencies showed Halili was “possibly involved” in the drug trade.

“Even [Tanauan] residents have been asking me [why Halili] has not been targeted yet in Tokhang,” he said.

Cabanag also cautioned the Mayor’s Anti-Crime Group (MACG), a group of civilians employed and armed by the city government to fight crime, from making arrests or carrying firearms while police investigate reports that some of its members were using or selling drugs.

Cabanag said there were two instances, since June 30, when MACG members were arrested at police checkpoints due to illegal drugs.

Shame campaign

“If they have any information [leading to crime solution], pass it on to the police. Don’t make any arrests as it is quite insulting to us,” Cabanag said.

MACG was also responsible for the arrests of crime suspects, among them drug pushers, in Tanauan. These suspects had been shamed in public, with Halili’s consent.

Cabanag, however, declined to discuss in detail Halili’s alleged involvement in illegal drugs.

Halili said charges against him were “political,” after he beat a retired police official in the mayoral election in May.

“I don’t trust whatever [drug] list the Batangas provincial police may have. They should check it, or we’ll end up like Espino,” he said.

The mayor was referring to former Pangasinan governor and now Rep. Amado Espino Jr., who was earlier implicated in the President’s drug matrix.

Mr. Duterte later apologized to Espino and other Pangasinan officials for “lapses” in the list.

Gerard Laresma, Tanauan information officer, said the city government offers a series of antidrug seminars to thousands of drug dependents who surrendered to authorities.