27 politicians with suspected drug links win in elections

Twenty-seven politicians named on President Rodrigo Duterte’s narcolist won in last week’s midterm elections, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.
“Out of the 47 on the narcolist, 37 ran and 27 won,” PNP chief General Oscar Albayalde told reporters.
He withheld the names but said some were elected as governors and mayors in the Central Luzon and the Southern Tagalog regions.
The list of alleged narcopoliticians, released by Duterte in March, was said to have been validated by the PNP, the military and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
Albayalde said the police were still conducting investigations but were keen to go after the politicians if the latter are found to be involved in the illegal drugs trade.
“Department of the Interior and Local Governments has said, ‘they will be filing cases, both criminal and administrative.’ They are being investigated and as the DILG has said, criminal and administrative cases will be filed if evidence is found,” the PNP chief said. Sen. Richard Gordon also pushed for an investigation, claiming that massive vote-buying occurred in the areas where the alleged narcopoliticians won.
“The inordinate, flagrant and scandalous vote-buying in areas where the narcopoliticians won must be investigated,” he said,
The Anti-Money Laundering Council, in particular, should look at bank withdrawals during the election period while the Bureau of Internal Revenue should also be involved in the probe, the senator continued.
Gordon, whose sister-in-law lost the Olongapo mayoral race, alleged rampant vote-buying in the city and the province of Zambales, which he said could become a dumping ground of drugs smuggled from China.
“It is obviously an attempt by the narcopoliticians to save themselves by getting positions,” he said.
“These people have proven that with just money, they can win, they can buy the Comelec, they can buy votes. I have never seen anything like it in my life and I blew the whistle on it, four days before the elections.”