President Rodrigo Duterte has a new list of politicians allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade and is likely to release their names soon, according to Senators Richard Gordon and JV Ejercito, despite criticism of his “name-and-shame” campaign.

The disclosure came amid the Supreme Court’s determination to investigate four judges the President had earlier implicated in his war on drugs, rejecting the resignation of Judge Exequil Dagala of the Municipal Trial Court of Dapa-Socorro in Surigao del Norte to pursue its inquiry.

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“The resignation was not accepted by the court because the judge, prior to his being named by the President, was already being investigated in connection with other offenses,” said Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te.

The senators said they saw the President holding the list during a dinner meeting in Malacañang on Monday night. The list is longer and includes both incumbent and former elected officials.

“There are many names. There are more this time,” said Gordon, who was among seven senators present at the dinner meeting, which mainly tackled the administration’s tax reform agenda.

“He holds a list of all public officials that he will be naming soon,” Ejercito said, adding that these people “give protection” to drug traders. Ejercito said most on the list were past and present officials, including members of the House of Representatives, mayors and councilors. “He did not say how many but most are from provinces in Mindanao,” the senator said.

Mr. Duterte had earlier tagged star-ranked police officials, mayors and judges in the drug trade, requiring them to appear before authorities or get “whacked.”

The war on illegal drugs has claimed more than 1,000 lives since Mr. Duterte took over the presidency, which he won by an overwhelming vote, campaigning on a platform centered on eliminating the narcotics scourge.

The Dangerous Drugs Board said the drug problem had engulfed 27 percent of the nation’s 42,000 barangays as of December last year and produced 1.3 million drug addicts, most of them users of “shabu,” or methamphetamine hydrochloride. The shabu plague, which has infected 99 percent of barangays in Metro Manila, apparently went off the radar screen of the Aquino administration.

Sen. Leila de Lima, Aquino’s justice secretary, is set to begin on Monday her investigation into the spate of drug-related killings that has raised concern among human rights groups here and abroad.

She said she had witnesses to show that police “scalawags” were behind some of the alleged extrajudicial killings.

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No retreat

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said yesterday the war on drugs would not be deterred by De Lima, chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, and that he would pursue Mr. Duterte’s campaign promise to end the drug problem within six months of his presidency.

“I don’t care what investigation will come. I will continue to motivate my men to exploit the momentum. The momentum is on our side. We don’t have to slow down. [We will] continue the fight,” Dela Rosa said.

He shrugged off De Lima’s allegations that policemen were behind the summary executions of drug dealers.

“These killings are not by vigilante groups. They’re done by drug syndicates. You will be surprised when we release our data, the facts on who is killing who. You will know that later,” he said.

“We don’t need to be scared for the truth to come out. Our going to the Senate is a sign we are true to our words, true to our deeds. We will not be hiding anything. Whatever they want to know we will give it. We can’t give what is not true. If they say we salvaged [executed suspects] and we didn’t, don’t worry we will release all the data. We will tell them all they want to know,” he said.

Dela Rosa said policemen were also dying and being injured in legitimate operations against drug suspects.

“We are at war so if you go to war, you don’t go there unprepared and our preparations should not be half-hazard. If you’re there you must be decisive. If a policemen joins a raid, you must be ready to kill or be killed,” he said.

Court invites Bato

In a resolution yesterday, the Supreme Court invited Dela Rosa and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Isidro Lapeña to submit within seven days complaint affidavits or other information against the four judges Mr. Duterte had named.

Te said the high tribunal would “treat the speech of President Duterte as information against Judges Exequil Dagala, Adriano Savillo, Domingo Casiple and Antonio Reyes, and on the basis of such information, order the conduct of a motu proprio fact finding investigation into whether they are involved in illegal drugs.”

Briefing reporters, Te said Dagala had submitted his irrevocable resignation following Mr. Duterte’s Aug. 7 speech. He said that the resignation was rejected and that Dagala would remain “under the jurisdiction of the court as far as administrative discipline is concerned and will be subject to the fact-finding investigation to be conducted by retired Associate Justice Roberto A. Abad.”

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno had warned those accused judges not to surrender to police without warrants of arrest, earning an angry retort from Mr. Duterte, who threatened to clamp the nation under martial law. He later apologized to Sereno. TVJ

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