GOV. JOSE ONG
TACLOBAN CITY—A newly elected congressman and his uncle, who is governor in Northern Samar, were accused by the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Eastern Visayas of involvement in illegal drugs in the province.
On its website, the NDF, an umbrella group of underground Leftist organizations, including the Communist Party of the Philippines, identified Rep. Edwin Ong as the “biggest drug lord” in Northern Samar, one of the country’s poorest provinces, who is being supported in the illegal trade by his uncle, Gov. Jose Ong.
But Governor Ong, who is now on his second term, brushed aside the allegation raised by NDF through its spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas.
“I don’t know where the (NDF) got that information,” said the governor.
“It’s their practice to accuse anybody without any basis,” he said.
The governor insisted that he had been fighting illegal drugs in Northern Samar.
Northern Samar is rated as the poorest province in Eastern Visayas where six out of 10 people are classified as poor, according to the survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority during the first quarter of 2015.
The other provinces in Eastern Visayas are Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran.
The statement issued by the NDF on its website and distributed to media outlets here, was made apparently in response to the call of President Duterte for the communist group to help him in his campaign to rid the country of the illegal drug menace.
In a one-page statement, the NDF claimed that the two officials were behind the “widespread illegal drug trade in the province.”
The rebels expressed concern over the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs in Northern Samar that “these are even sold to elementary students and in remote towns.”
NDF also alleged that the Ongs were using the local police to arrest drug pushers who were not under their protection.
The communist group, however, did not cite specific cases or present evidence to back its claim.
Rogelette Urgel, information officer of the regional Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), in a phone interview, said that the agency did not have any information on the alleged involvement of the Ongs on the illegal drug trade in Northern Samar.
Asked if the PDEA is monitoring local officials in Eastern Visayas who are involved in drugs, Urgel said yes.
“We consider them as high-value targets,” she said.
Urgel, however, declined to provide other details.
But in Cebu, a brother of a town mayor did not wait for police to arrest him for his involvement in drugs.
Jover Jusay, brother of Catmon town Mayor Dan Jusay, is the first drug suspect to present himself at the police station in the town in northern Cebu and promise to stop selling drugs.
Senior Insp. Roberto Hugo, chief of the Catmon police precinct, said the mayor’s younger brother was No. 2 on the police list of drug personalities. With a report from Carmel Loise Matus, Inquirer Visayas
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