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MANILA - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief on Wednesday said majority of the 31 celebrities on its drugs watch list are still popular.

"Lahat ito puro sikat, parang isa lang ang laos na, yung matanda na 'yun," said PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino on ANC's Headstart.

(All of them are still popular except for maybe one.)

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Aquino said that out of the 31 celebrities on PDEA's watchlist, 11 are actresses and the rest are male actors. Many are also in their 20s and 30s.

"We identified two pushers--yung isa pusher ng shabu, yung isa pusher ng ecstasy," he said.

(We identified two pushers--one for shabu and the other one for ecstasy.)

Aquino said they cannot release the names of celebrities allegedly involved in illegal drugs without validating the list first.

"It's a long process and I hope time will come ma-validate din namin ito, including the media na merong din kasama doon sa listahan namin,...hini-hinamay himay natin," he said.

(It's a long process and I hope time will come when we are able to validate this, including the media, which is included in the list. We are sorting this out.)

He added that the agency is still preoccupied with the narco-politics list, adding that it took them over a year to validate the names of 46 politicians. There are still names of other politicians undergoing revalidation, he said.

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"After ma-validate itong narco-politician, maybe that's the time we'll start validating these celebrities," he said.

(After we validate the narco-politician list, maybe that's the time we'll start validating these celebrities.)

He believes that the number of celebrities could reach 100 if the watch lists from other agencies like the Philippine National Police or the Armed Forces of the Philippines are combined with that of PDEA's.