SLAIN Tanauan Mayor Antonio Halili might have been involved in jueteng, but not in illegal drugs, Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Thursday.
Lacson disclosed that Halili, who was gunned down last Monday, was his “longtime friend.”
The senator said he would not have visited the mayor’s family on Wednesday if he had an iota of doubt that Halili was involved in the illegal drug trade.
“I’ll be the last person na bibisita dun. But then he was a long time friend, nasa serbisyo pa lang ako. I think I was still a captain when we started knowing each other and getting acquainted, and since then wala naman talaga akong nakitang posibilidad na ma-involve sya sa droga,” he said.
“He was not a saint nor an angel, that much I can say. Pero involvement sa drugs, I can, at least with the limited network that I also have, e alam ko wala sya na involvement.”
When Halili’s name appeared in the so-called “narco-list,” Lacson said he also asked his sources but there was no confirmation of the mayor’s alleged links with illegal drugs.
The senator said it was Halili’s “misfortune” that his name was included in the narco list.
“And to me, I think that’s the cruelest eulogy that you can offer to any dead person,” Lacson said.