Lacson links 5 mayors to drugs but declines to name them

He’s back in the exposé groove.

On Wed, Jul 13, during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, Sen. Panfilo Lacson revealed that there were “at least five mayors outside Metro Manila are either drug lords or protectors of drug lords.”

Lacson said he got the information from a list given to him by certain police officers.

“Lacson he was willing to share the list with President Duterte, who last week announced he would soon publicly shame mayors and politicians involved in the illegal drug trade,” reports Christine O. Avendaño in Philippine Daily Inquirer.

It may be recalled that Duterte has named five Philippine National Police (PNP) generals as drug coddlers: retired police generals Vicente Loot and Marcelo Garbo Jr. and active officers, Director Joel Pagdilao and Chief Superintendents Bernardo Diaz and Edgardo Tinio. They have all have denied the allegations.

For his part, Lacson, declined to name the five mayors. He only said that “some of them currently hold office and had been allegedly involved in the drug trade for a number of years.”

Lacson didn’t name the police officers who gave him the list either. He only said that they sought his guidance.

Lacson, a former PNP chief during the administration of ex-president Joseph Estrada, said the police officers sought guidance from him.