By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

After a whistleblower came forward over the weekend, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) confirmed several Negros Occidental politicians and police officers have links to illegal drugs. However, PDEA Provincial Chief Jose Tumabini would not disclose the names as they are still validating information.

“It is not clear yet what is the direct connection of these prominent personalities to illegal drugs,” he explained.

“Validation and investigation is not an easy task,” the PDEA official added. “We have to have an ‘air tight’ case when we file cases against them.”

During a press conference last Saturday, the woman, who requested not to be named, said she has been hiding for three years because of grave threats to her life and family.

“Since 2016, I already received a lot of death threats,” the whistleblower admitted. “My family and I transfer from one place to another to ensure our safety.”

“But now, we are already fed up and it’s high time that I will speak out,” she added. “We had enough of those threats.”

She admitted to previously engaging in the drug trade as a courier by helping her godfather, whom she tagged as a “drug lord in southern Negros.”

Although, the said “drug lord” already ended his involvement in the trade, his son has since taken over operations.

In 2016, she drew up an affidavit and enumerated those protecting and enjoying financial benefits from the drug trade.

“I already decided to help the government in its fight against illegal drugs,” the whistleblower affirmed. “A lot of the police officers and even top elected officials, who are drug protectors; and that particular top elected official is indeed the mastermind of the illegal drug trade, killing people, [and] filing charges against a lot of people who could no longer serve his purpose.”

“I gave that affidavit to a particular police officer, who is already retired, and, apparently, that affidavit fell [into] the hands of those police whom I have named,” she added./DGB, WDJ