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vol. xXX1tNO. JUNE 19,2019'6 SECTIONS,42 n0il1;

THE PHILIPPINE STAR

nerfrs i WEDNESDAY I lUNe 19,2019

Lawmaker asks SC to exclude

him from rnarco list'
By DELON PORCALLA
Congressman-elect Vicente
Veloso of Leyte has filed a peti-
tion asking the Supreme Court
(SC) to issue a writ of habeas
data to take his name out of
President Duterte's so-called
narco list of suspected drug
traffickers.
In a 15-page petitiory the
former Court of Appeals jus-
tice argued that his inclusion in
Duterte's narco list and being
tagged as one of the "narco
politicians" in tlie country is
not validated.
Veloso, chairman of the
House committee on constitu-
tional amendments, believes
that it was a last-minute and
malicious insertion, made not
bythe duly authorized person-
nel of concerned agencies on
the ground, but by unscrupu-
lous people elsewhere.
He also urged the SC jus-
judicial
tices to utilize and take
notice of the November 2016
teslimony of confessed drug
lord Kerwin Espinosa before
the Senate, where he replied to
a query df Sen. Panfilo Lacson
if"he indeed ever knew Veloso,
"Sorty po, c0ngress-
man. Hindi kita kilala, wala
akong - hindi iyan naka - wala
knming transaction rl (I don t
know you we have no trans-
action)," Veloso quoted Espi-
nosa, lifting transcripts from
the Senate joint committee on
public ordei and dangerous
drugs, along with justice and
human rights.
Veloso, an administration
legislator, also showed the
SC the timeline bolstering his
suspicion of an "insertion"
primarily because i March
14 online article in lhe Manila
Times at about 1 p.^. didn't
bear his narne as among the
alleged narco politicians.
The report indicated there
was "none" in Region 8 or
Eastern Visayas, and only the
nalnes of his fellow congress-
men jesus Celeste of Panga-
sinan and Jeffrey Khonghuir
of Zambales were mentioned
in the list.
Four hours later (5 p.m.),
howeve{, a list was released to
the Malacaflang Press Corps,
this time bearing his name
(Vicente Sofronio Veloso), but
with the word "none" still in
the Eastern Visayas category
matrix.
"The belated listing is cbn-
tradicted by the four agencies'
personnel on the ground,"
Veloso stressed, noting that all
four concemed agencies -Phil-
ipine National Police (PNP),
Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency (PDEA), National In-
telligence Coordinating Ageq
cy (NICA) and Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) - have
cleared him of the allegations.
"All officers of PDEA, PNR
NICA and AFP categorically
admitted that my name is
not on their list of narco-pol-
iticians. Even DILG's Region
8 Director Artemio Caneja
attested that my name does
not appear in their list," he
maintained.
For his part, PDEA director-
general Aaron Aquino wrote
Veloso last April 5 that the
narco list originated from the
Office of the President and
only the President can exclude
any individual from the list,
Veloso, a former ACCRA
law partneq, said he was con-
strained to seek direct recourse
on the basis that these are com-
pelling matters and involve
acts of the highest offices of the
executive branch, a co:eeual
branch of government.
He said he has exhausted
all other plain, speedy and ad-
equate remedy in the ordinary
course of law like seeking the
help of fellow lawyer Execu-
tive Secretary Salvador Medi-
aldea, who gaveno immediate
favorable action.
"The successful, yet mali-
cious and baseless, inclusion
of my name in the March 14
list'of narco politicians has
emboldened my political en-
emies to commit various acts of
harassment " Veloso lamented.
' He revealed that in late
March, unidentifie{ armed
men claiming to be police
authorities attempted to enter
his farm in San Miguel Leyte
"without the benefit of a search
warrant.l'

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