Duterte names 46 pols on narcolist

President Duterte on Thursday night identified 43 local officials and three congressmen, most of them running in midterm elections in May, on his so-called narcolist.

Speaking in Davao City, Duterte said cases had been filed against the politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade with the Office of the Ombudsman.

“So this is already a validated report,” Duterte said during a joint police-military command conference.

The local officials named are from the Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen, Caraga region and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

On the list of officials named by the President are 35 mayors, seven vice mayors, one provincial board member, and three members of the House of Representatives.

The President named the politicians as he lamented the loss of policemen and soldiers in his bloody war on drugs.

From July 2018 to March this year, he said, 527 policemen were wounded, 553 soldiers killed, and 3,038 wounded in the campaign against narcotics.

The three congressmen he named were Leyte Rep. Vicente Sofronio Veloso, who is running for reelection; Pangasinan Rep. Jesus Celeste, who is not running; and Zambales Rep. Jeffrey Khonghun, who is also running for another term.

Among the local officials on the list identified by Duterte was dismissed Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who has fled the country.

The President said he had given a list of Philippine officials, including Mabilog, to the US Embassy in Manila.

But he said he did not know if Mabilog was in the United States or in Canada.

Alcala clan

Duterte also mentioned Mayor Roderick Alcala of Lucena City in Quezon province.

“These Alcalas,” the President said, referring to former Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and saying the clan had been wiped out because of involvement in illegal drugs.

“You never learned,” Duterte said.

The President said he had met Alcala in Lucena and thanked him for greeting him.

“But you know you are here, you have been always there [on] the list for many years,” he said he told Alcala.

Duterte also named Mayor Vicente Loot of Daanbantayan, Cebu province, who is a former police chief superintendent.

Loot is not running for reelection.

“There are some people in the world you cannot dupe,” Duterte said, adding he would resign if he could not “neutralize” the drug problem because that would mean he was useless.

“I am not interested in releasing it before or after the elections because I don’t have any intention of hurting anybody,”  Duterte said.

Others not yet verified

He said he won’t identify the others on the list pending verification of their involvement in the narcotics trade.

Duterte said the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Presidential Anticorruption Commission were also investigating.

“The results . . . will aid us in filing airtight cases against them,” Mr. Duterte said. —WITH REPORTS FROM GERMELINA LACORTE AND JULIE M. AURELIO