BREAKING NEWS: New 'narco-list' includes judges, Chinese nationals, Duterte says

President Duterte holds a diagram showing the network of drug rings and personalities operating in the country while delivering a televised message at Malacañang on July 7. BOY SANTOS, file |

By Alexis Romero via Philstar

           

MANILA, Philippines -- Around 40 judges and several Chinese individuals are on the new list of individuals with suspected links to illegal drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday.


Duterte said he is leaving it to security forces to deal with the suspected drug personalities, which include government officials.


“But the problem is now all encompassing, and it is destroying our nation,” the president told members of the 9th Infantry Division in Pili, Camarines Sur.


“There is about one page here containing the names of our Chinese friends. Judges, there are about 40 distributed all around (the country),” he added.


Duterte went on to name some of the Chinese individuals and a Filipina from Pampanga believed to be involved in narcotics trade.


“I will give a copy (of the list) to the armed forces and the police. It will be up to you to deal with it,” Duterte said. “Solve this problem because it will destroy the Philippines.”


Last week, Duterte said there are about 1,000 names in the third narco list, which was still undergoing validation.


The president has so far accused more than 160 incumbent and former local executives, lawmakers, village officials, judges and uniformed personnel of involvement in illegal drugs.


Many of those named trooped to regional police stations and the Philippine National Police headquarters in Quezon City to deny the allegations. Others named on the list had died long before their names were read in public.


Duterte admitted in August that the list that he read out in public was old and claimed that he announced the names anyway so the public would know "everyone involved in the drug problem, even the deceased."


The Department of Justiceand the Philippine National Police have yet to announce the filing of formal charges against those included in the so-called narco-list.


Duterte had vowed to crush illegal drugs and criminality within the first three to six months of his presidency. The president, however, admitted last Sunday that he was surprised by the extent of the drug menace and he might need six more months to address the problem.


“I really prodded everyone to work and produce results. I did not know, to my horror, that it was that serious,” Duterte said, noting that there are about 3.7 million drug addicts in the Philippines.


The Dangerous Drugs Board, which sets drug policy, said this week that there were an estimated 1.7 million drug users in the country in 2015, up from 1.3 million in a 2012 survey. Not all drug users in the survey are classified as drug dependents or drug abusers.