MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Wednesday that intelligence reports like "narco lists" should be treated as confidential and not bared to the public.
"A narco list, just like an Order of Battle, is a product of an intelligence workshop and is disseminated only to personnel with the corresponding security clearance," he said. An Order of Battle is supposedly a list of targets and "enemies of the state" that security forces keep and constantly update. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has denied that it keeps Orders of Battle at all.
Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief, said making the list of drug suspects public could jeopardize ongoing intelligence operations as those on it would be warned.
He added that it could also "unnecessarily shame" or put the lives of the people on the list at risk. Mistakes are also a possibility, which is unfair to those wrongly tagged.
On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte apologized for erroneously including the names of former Pangasinan governor and now Pangasinan Rep. Amado Espino Jr., Pangasinan Provincial Administrator Rafael "Raffy" Baraan and Pangasinan Board Member Raul Sison in the drug matrix he revealed last month.
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The matrix implicated them, along with three other public officials, in the drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP). Sen. Leila de Lima is the highest ranking official on the matrix which also included her driver and alleged bagman Ronnie Dayan.
"It is my duty to tell the nation what is happening but it is also my duty that if I commit wrong I should apologize," the president said pertaining to the error during a briefing Wednesday prior to his departure for his two-day Vietnam visit.
Duterte said that as a lawyer, he knows that reputation could be "effectively destroyed" by making "public a certain wrong against a person."
He, however, said the mistake does not affect the credibility of the "narco lists" he previously announced.
Aside from the matrix, the president has so far bared two lists.The first detailed the names of five PNP generals and the second included names of mayors, cops and judges.
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The president has yet to announce a more extensive list which contains names of 1,000 public officials and another one which details celebrities allegedly involved in the narcotics trade.
Lacson, however, noted that the mistake puts the credibility of the other lists on the line.
"An immediate review of all the narco lists is in order. As I said, the president or any official making a classified document public is ill-advised and will not serve the purpose for which it was prepared," he said.