If anything, the so-called “narco-politicians” list to be submitted by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in time for tomorrow’s deadline for the filing of candidacies amounts to a witch hunt that can be used to prosecute without evidence those deemed to be dangerous to the incumbent administration.
The timing is not only suspect but dangerous as it will set a legal precedent from which the country’s social-political landscape may be tested beyond its limits for upheaval.
The list is supposed to be compiled by the Philippine National Police in coordination, we presume, with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) whose ranks had been stretched and decimated in recent weeks by the relentless war on drugs.
If the DILG does submit its narco-list to the Comelec tomorrow, it will still have to undergo review before the polling agency decides the unprecedented and move to disqualify candidates identified as narco-politicians on which basis will have to be explained to the public.
Evidence which is supposed to be beyond reasonable doubt that will qualify for consideration in the courts and owing to the large number of candidates nationwide, the PNP has some explaining to do on how they arrived at identifying those candidates as narco-politicians or candidates.
And the question of whether or not the Comelec will disclose the names of suspected narco-candidates had yet to be considered. If the candidates were indeed named in public and disqualified, expect a firestorm of complaints and a deluge of cases to be filed in the courts by those named who will challenge the PNP and PDEA to substantiate their allegations.
Then again, the administration’s objective would likely be achieved, namely the public shaming and instilling of doubt and suspicion on candidates who may or may not have drug ties but pose a serious threat to the election chances of the administration’s candidates in the midterm elections.
If Comelec does accept and entertain the DILG list, it cannot quietly disqualify a candidate on suspicion of his or her drug links since said candidate will challenge it in court.
Last time we checked there were incumbent officials and even former officials with pending cases against them who were still able to run for and even win in the elections.
If there are narco-candidates, then charges should be filed against them but disqualifying them from running for office remains a highly questionable and unsettling political development.
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