A police officers guards ballot boxes in this file photo taken in Maguindanao. (Photo by BONG S. SARMIENTO / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Interior Secretary Eduardo Año blamed on Monday the victory of several re-electionist “narcopoliticians” in the midterm polls partly to the immaturity of voters.
Of 46 politicians in the so-called narcolist announced by President Rodrigo Duterte live on national television in March, 37 ran in the midterm polls, with 27 winning, according to Gen. Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“Maybe our voters are not yet very matured, especially those remote areas,” Año, speaking Filipino, said in interview on Monday.
Año gave the interview on the sidelines of the signing of memorandum between the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Finance on the adoption of regulatory fees and charges for local government units.
He added, however, that there might be other factors that influenced the decision of these voters to choose candidates linked to the illegal drug trade.
“We do not know their history. Maybe they had long been indebted to a politician. So they still voted for him,” he said.
Others, he added, probably just didn’t care about the narcolist since there was still vote-buying still.
READ: Duterte names 46 pols on narcolist
But regardless of the election results, the DILG chief acknowledged the decision of the public.
“The public have spoken, the people have spoken. They were already elected,” he said.
Año said his duty now would be to “ensure that these government officials will do their jobs in accordance to the mandate of the Local Government Code.”
Both Año and Albayalde said the victory of alleged narcopoliticians in the elections would not guarantee that they would spared from investigation.
(Editor: Alexander T. Magno)