MANILA – Police officers whose names are on President Rodrigo Duterte’s “narco-list” must be “presumed innocent” until proven guilty, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Archie Gamboa said.
Gamboa made the statement as he still refused to comment on controversial Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, whose inclusion on the supposed drug watch lists was confirmed by Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.
“The 357 police officers on the list will be given a chance, I have asked the President for time for the PNP to validate and evaluate the list,” Gamboa said. “[Just] because they are on the list,
[it]
is not enough to stand in court, even in administrative proceedings.”
Gamboa added that, if the information behind the tagging of a police officer isn’t true, the police will be cleared but, If it’s true, the PNP will “have to exert effort to build cases against” that officer.
“When you say case build-up, you gather evidence para ma-file-an ng kaso sa korte,” Gamboa said.
Espenido, a former police chief of Albuera town, Leyte and Ozamiz City, was earlier removed from his post in Bacolod for undisclosed reasons until it was revealed that he was listed in the latest “narco-list.”
Espenido is known for leading the anti-illegal drugs operation that resulted in the death of Ozamiz mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and his wife in July 2017.
He was also the police chief of Albuera when former mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was killed inside his jail cell after supposedly engaging policemen who served a search warrant in a firefight./PN
