PDEA: Don’t vote for bets with drug links

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is discouraging the public from casting their votes for drug-tainted candidates running in the May 2022 polls.

Wilkins Villanueva, chief of the PDEA, issued the appeal on Friday after a mayoralty candidate was arrested at a checkpoint in Mountain Province.

Sonny Kalaw, 36, and four others were arrested on October 13 at a checkpoint in Sitio Oowayen in Barangay Poblacion, Sadanga town, by agents of PDEA-Cordillera Administrative Region and local police.

Seized from the suspects in their black Toyota HiAce Grandia van were 19 kilos of dried marijuana leaves worth P2.3 million, a weighing scale, a 9mm pistol, and assorted IDs.

A former police officer, Kalaw is running for mayor of Sadanga town in next year’s elections.

“Dismiss candidates who are involved in illegal drug activities. They do not deserve your votes. We urge the voting public to choose wisely our next leaders,” Villanueva said. —Dexter Cabalza