Majority leader Rudy Fariñas on Wednesday said the House is checking the veracity of the involvement of three congressmen who are part of the “narco list” of President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a press conference at the House of Representatives, the Ilocos Norte representative said the two congressmen from the narco list were from Luzon.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier said there were only two congressmen from the list, and one was from Mindanao. He had since corrected the number to three.
READ: 2 congressmen on Duterte’s latest ‘narco list’–Alvarez
Fariñas said he has called the Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to ask for more details about the narco list, which was brandished to the media by the President himself in a series of interviews before the end of 2016.
Fariñas said he has also talked to the three congressmen to give them an opportunity to clear their names.
“Kailangan namang may due process diyan. Mahirap pangalanan, hindi naman fully validated,” Fariñas said.
(Due process must be followed. It’s difficult to name names without full validation.)
Fariñas said the solons were surprised that they were included in the list, adding that there is also a possibility that the President made another mistake about his narco list.
“This came from the President. Nandyan yung weight. Pero it has been shown in the past na may mali naman,” Fariñas said.
(This came from the President. The weight is there. But it has been shown in the past that there had been mistakes.)
Duterte earlier apologized to former Pangasinan governor now congressman Amado Espino Sr. who was first included in his drug matrix on the alleged Bilibid drug trade until the President corrected himself and cleared the congressman.
Duterte admitted not verifying the drug matrix that linked Espino, board member Raul Sison, and former provincial administrator Raffy Baraan to the alleged drug trade activities at the New Bilibid Prison that implicated his rival Senator Leila de Lima. CDG