Regional political party Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP) has requested for an investigation into the extent of Vice Presidential candidate Walden Bello’s alleged knowledge and involvement in the illegal drug trade in Davao City.
This after Bello claimed during the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-sponsored Vice Presidential debates on March 19, 2022 that Davao City is a trading center of illegal drugs in the South.
In a statement issued on March 21, 2022, HNP stated that it’s apparent that Bello holds information about the illegal drugs in Davao City but deliberately kept it from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
HNP took Bello’s claims seriously as a regional political party with incumbent elected official members who want to strengthen the coordination with law enforcement agencies fighting the proliferation of prohibited drugs.
“It can be said that Mr. Bello is a narcopolitician in a way that he withheld information crucial in the government’s anti-drug campaign. As a vice presidential candidate in a narcopolitics, as someone who knowingly and purposely refused to disclose information or cooperate with the authorities, Mr. Bello has just presented himself as a danger to peace and order and a threat to the anti-illegal drugs campaign of the government,” it said.
On March 7, 2022, former Davao City Information officer Jefry Tupas has filed a P10 million cyber libel case against Bello following his online interview that circulated on social media that Tupas “was nabbed at a beach party where she and her friends were snorting 1.5 million worth of drugs on November 6, 2021.
The issue of Tupas was brought up by Bello after Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio did not attend the vice presidential debate hosted by CNN Philippines.
In his FB post, Bello also cited Mayor Sara’s political spokesperson Liloan Mayor Christina Frasco’s statement stating that “Mayor Sara does not need to participate in the debates because in the five years since [her becoming Mayor] in 2016, Davao City has received 118 awards, citations, and recognitions.”
Bello posted some questions including why is it that:
“Davao City has become the drug smuggling center of the South, it being an open secret that the drug trade is controlled by a Duterte family member?” and “Mayor Duterte’s Press Information Officer Jefry Tupas was nabbed at a beach party where she and her friends were snorting P1.5 million worth of drugs on November 6, 2021? Her excuse that she did not know she was sheltering a drug dealer is not credible.”
