Comelec: ‘Narco list’ won’t affect candidates
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2019 11:03:37 +0000
AS far as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is concerned, the names of candidates on the supposed “narco list” of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has no effect on one’s candidacy.
“Our position has never wavered. Give us the list if you have it, release it… but it will not really affect the qualification of the candidate because the narco list is not a final conviction,” said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez in a press briefing on Monday.
Jimenez said that there were a lot of collateral issues for the use of the “narco-list” but stressed that none of those would affect either the Comelec or the status of the candidates.
“If there’s a candidate on the narco list then that list reflects at best an allegation that they are involved in narcotics trade, it is not a final conviction. Since it is not a final conviction it cannot be disqualifying,” he said.
Jimenez said that what could be done would be to provide feedbacks to the voters that a certain candidate was a suspected criminal, which could spell defeat for one’s candidacy.
“But again the Comele is not involved in making those arguments. We don’t have a position on it. If someone wants to release a narco list that’s their call entirely. The Comelec is not involved in it,” he further said. WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL
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