Making the “List of Narcopoliticians” Public Violates a Person’s Right to Due Process

The Commission on Human Rights reiterates that the publication of a “List of Narcopoliticians” would constitute a denial of a person’s right to due process.

The timing of the publication, set by DILG Secretary Eduardo Año at the start of the local campaign period for the May 13 elections, will only fuel reckless mud-slinging, character assasinations, and violence.

If we can withhold judgment against some candidates still facing plunder cases before the Sandiganbayan, Secretary Año can also respect and follow due process.

We urge our government to improve the PNP’s and PDEA’s evidence-gathering capability, and to undertake more effective legal measures in identifying, arresting and prosecuting big-time drug lords, their foreign partners, backers in the PNP, the Bureau of Customs, the BuCor’s New Bilibid Prison, and others: elective local executives, corrupted officials and personnel of the executive departments, and their protectors in the judiciary.

We take this opportunity to clarify the CHR’s support for a more humane Anti-Drug Campaign, one that protects the lives of drug dependents and provides for their rehabilitation.

We do recognize the seriousness of the illegal drug menace that threaten our democratic institutions and imperil our people’s aspirations for a free, just and peaceful social order.

We support the Anti-Drug Campaign, but we resolutely say NO to extrajudicial killing.

Violent confrontations can be avoided or prevented with the application of proper legal remedies such as search and arrest warrants instead of “buy-bust operations” that almost always end up in shooting and killing suspected drug users, small-time retailers, and even innocent individuals including children.

We salute our men in uniform who recognize that: “The most important task of law enforcement is to protect life and to uphold human dignity and human rights.” ■