Panelo recants: No foreign wiretaps used in ‘narcolist’ data

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Thursday retracted from his earlier claim that the list of so-called narco-politcians was based on “wiretapped” information from foreign governments monitoring drug syndicates.

In a Palace briefing, Panelo, who is also the chief legal counsel of President Rodrigo Duterte, said he used “the wrong word” in his claims and clarified his remark that drew criticisms and raised alarm since wiretapping is prohibited under Philippine laws.

“I’m clarifying my statement. My statement is based on logic, on educated guess, on what is happening on the world today…as far as I know walang nagpo-provide sa atin ng information,” Panelo said.

“I used the wrong word. What I really mean is if any information is thrown to our lap without asking (for) it whether it’s coming from whosoever, we can use that information as lead. Lead lang,” he added.

Asked if a certain drug personality was wiretapped by a foreign government, Panelo said: “Wala, definitely I’m not referring to the list na ilalabas.”

“Wala pang na wiretapped, ang akin more on educated guess kung ano dapat gawin at kung anong maaring gawin,” he added.

The Palace official made the clarification after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the lead agency in Duterte’s drug war, denied receiving wiretapped information from other countries.

READ: PDEA chief denies receiving wiretapped info from foreign gov’t on ‘narcopols’

Panelo this time said the narcolist was based on information from law enforcement agencies, drug surrenderers, and complaints from the community.

“‘Yung mga impormasyon galing sa surrenderees, ‘yung impormasyon from arrested people, ‘yung pagconduct nila ng buy-bust operations, ‘yun ang mga (basis). It will be coming from testimonial, sa mga community…kung may mga magsusumbong,” he said.

Earlier, Panelo said some of the evidence against Philippine officials with drug links were from wiretapped communications provided by the US, Israel, Russia, and China.

“Ang mga nagpo-provide sa atin mga… sa ibang bansa eh. Ang magagaling diyan Israel, magaling diyan America, Russia, China. In other words, they provide us with the information. Kung tayo lang, eh wala, kopong-kopong pa yata iyong mga instrumento natin eh,” he said.

READ: Duterte OKs release of ‘narco list’

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has been pushing for the release of the narcolist ahead of the May 13 midterm elections purportedly to warn voters against choosing candidates who have links in the drug trade. /kga