ILOILO CITY—Local chief executives who were named by President Duterte as drug protectors should quit their posts in antidrug abuse councils, Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno said.
“It’s only proper for them to resign,” Sueno said in a phone interview.
Provinces, towns, cities and villages are supposed to each have antidrug abuse councils to help in the war on drugs.
Councils’ role
The councils are mandated to identify villages with drug problems and drug personalities, formulate plans and launch programs to fight drugs and submit monthly reports to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The governor chairs the council in the provincial level, mayors in municipal or city level and village chiefs in the barangay level.
Council vice chairs are provincial, municipal or city police chiefs or the village councilor in charge of peace and order.
Other members include the city prosecutor or municipal judge, health officer, social welfare officer, information officer and a representative each from a nongovernment organization and the religious sector.
Sueno said local officials being investigated for drug links should quit their posts in the councils to preserve the councils’ integrity and prevent the officials from interfering in investigations.
Sueno said he would soon issue an order requiring local officials on drug lists to quit the councils.
At least 46 mayors had been linked to drugs by Mr. Duterte on Aug. 7.
Controversy gripped Iloilo City after a village chief refused to submit his Barangay Anti Drug Abuse Council (Badac) report to Mayor Jed Patric Mabilog, who is among those named by Mr. Duterte in the drug trade.
Rivals
Mabilog has denied the President’s allegations and no case has been filed against him.
Sumakwel Nava, chief of Barangay Libertad in Lapuz District, refused to submit his Badac report to Mabilog.
Nava is father of Councilor Plaridel Nava, an ally turned critic of Mabilog.
The elder Nava submitted his report directly to the DILG.