PNP: No report received to validate claims a presidential bet uses drugs

MANILA, Philippines — No report has been forwarded to the Philippine National Police (PNP) to validate claims that a presidential candidate is actually using illegal drugs, police chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said on Monday.

During the press briefing at Camp Crame, Carlos was asked for updates on their promise to look into President Rodrigo Duterte’s claims that a certain candidate, who was unnamed, was doing illegal drugs like cocaine.

“Wala naman kaming report dyan, ibig sabihin, that time pinapa-validate namin.  Wala naman kaming — if, do you know it, then tell us the name, and then we will look back and do a background, ‘di ba? […] may pangalan ka?  Bigay mo sa akin, gano’n lang ‘yon eh, titignan namin ngayon,” Carlos said.

“We have no reports about that, which we have tried to validate in the past.  We have no reports — if you know it, then tell us the name, and then we will look back and do a background check, right?  Do you have a name?  Give it to me and we will look into it right now.)

“Kami we would like to be able to just, ‘yong kaya nga kami, we look at the information and then submit it.  Gano’n ang ano namin, if we do have (information), we submit it to the authority, for the consumption of that authority,” he added.

(Because in our case, we would like to be able to just look at the information and submit it.  That’s how we operate, if we have information, we submit it to the authority, for the consumption of that authority.)

Duterte last November 18 claimed that a presidential aspirant uses cocaine, a highly addictive substance that increases alertness but has a lot of negative effects on human health.  After the Chief Executive’s announcement, Carlos directed PNP offices, particularly the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) to check on the allegations.

Instead of focusing on the national level of the elections, Carlos said they are putting their attention on local candidates and issues of vote-buying by following the money trail, as directed by Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.

“May utos si Secretary Eduardo Año na no vote-buying, so definitely ‘yon din ‘yong assignment na binigay ko sa mga regional director, pag-aralan ‘yong money trail, at saka ano ‘yong dating gawi.  So dapat hindi nila magawa ‘yong maling gawain na in the past mino-monitor.  This time, we’re looking at the money trail,” Carlos explained.

(Interior Secretary Eduardo Año ordered us to prevent vote-buying, so definitely that’s also the assignment we gave to our regional directors, to study the money trail, and what have been the activities in the past.  So the tactics they employed before should be monitored.  This time, we’re looking at the money trail.)

“Wala naman sa national level, ang tinitignan namin dito ‘yong sa local, kaya we are monitoring, we’re looking at the (local) kasi laban nila ‘yan, sa amin bantay kami na balanse, kapag narereport o meron silang allegations, tinitignan namin kaagad, pinapapamonitor kaagad namin, pinapatignan namin kaagad,” he added.

(We didn’t find anything at the national level. What we’re focusing on is the local; that’s why we are monitoring, we’re looking at the local because that’s where fights happen.  For us, we guard the elections in a balanced way; that’s why if they report allegations we look into it immediately, and we monitor it quickly.)

Carlos again assured the public that the police force is ready to ensure a clean and peaceful election, adding that all that is left to do is to make some adjustments that would fit the situation on the ground.

“We’re ready actually, ‘yon nga ang sabi ko kaninang umaga monitoring na lang kami, at saka tweaking of — depending kung ano’ng situation on the ground.  Pero basically the deployment is nandyan na, magdadagdag kami ng tao, ‘yong situation on the ground okay naman,” he said.

(We’re ready actually, as I have said earlier we are on the monitoring stage, and on the tweaking of deployment, depending on the situation on the ground.  But basically the deployment is already there, we would just add more personnel, but the situation on the ground has been okay.)

“So we’re after the security, we’re making sure that ‘yong police namin ay apolitical, non-partisan, ‘yon ‘yong importante sa amin, na kami ay tatayo ng tama, tuwid, at gagawa lang ng tama,” he added.

(So we’re after the security, we’re making sure that police officers are apolitical, non-partisan, because that is what’s important to us: that we stand on what’s right, and remain upright.)

It is unclear who the presidential candidate Duterte was referring to, but some netizens claimed that it was former senator Bongbong Marcos.  However, Marcos’ camp denied that the President was alluding to the candidate.

Marcos last November had himself tested for cocaine, results of which came out negative.  He also said in a radio interview that he cannot use drugs as he has a lot of things to do — adding that illegal drug use is only for those who have nothing to do.

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