MANILA - A barangay councilor from Tanauan, Batangas who passed away last year was included in the "validated" Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) list of drug-linked village officials.
Angry and puzzled, the widow of Kagawad Lauro Vicencio of Barangay Pantay Matanda questioned why her husband, who was shot dead by still unidentified assailants near their house in January 2017, was still included in the "narco list."
"Bakit siya ang nakalista, hindi naman siya ano sa droga, bakit ganoon?" the widow, Gloria Vicencio, told ABS-CBN News on Tuesday, showing pictures of the crime scene.
Vicencio said prior to the killing, her late husband, a retired Army sergeant, planned to run for barangay chairman to weed out illegal drugs in their village.
Meanwhile, the Department of Interior and Local Government in Bicol said they found inaccuracies in the narco list.
Aside from misspelled names, DILG Region 5 Director Eloisa Pastor said some of those included in PDEA's list were already in jail, while at least 5 names should not have been included.
PDEA Spokesperson Derrick Carreon said they will look into the alleged inaccuracies but assured the public that 4 government agencies carefully crafted the list.
"If there are any inaccuracies as claimed, we will look into it again, but we assure the public that the concerned agencies exercised due diligence in the validation process." Carreon told ABS CBN News in a text message.
"(PDEA chief) Aaron Aquino went further by saying that barangay officials who are not in this 207 narco list are not out of the woods yet because we still have 274 in the PDEA watch list for validation," he added.
PDEA, Narco List, Barangay Polls, Elections, Halalan2019, Barangay Elections, War on Drugs, DILG