SANTIAGO CITY, Isabela — Running for barangay chairman, the purported top drug dealer in Cagayan Valley has vowed to eradicate illegal drugs in his village should he win in the Oct. 25 elections.
Johnny de Leon is running for the second time as chairman of barangay Mabini in this city if only to clear some of the accusations against him, he said. He lost in his first bid for barangay chairman. “I promise to make Mabini a drug-free village if it is the only way I can clear my name of baseless accusations," De Leon pointed out, as he ended his campaign sorties on Saturday. Mabini — where “Purok Tres" or the “shabu tiangge" is found — is the third vote-rich barangay here. Local news and police reports have long tagged Purok Tres as a haven for users and drug dealers that even anti-drug operatives don’t dare penetrate the area for fear of their lives. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Dionisio Santiago admitted that De Leon has been the agency’s “headache" in its fight against the illegal drug trade in the region. But De Leon is hard to pin down, Santiago said. Shrugging off the accusation against him,
De Leon said: “My villagemates know me better than those who are trying to brand me as a drug lord." De Leon pointed out that his first attempt to be his village’s chairman was marred by irregularity when a transformer suspiciously blew up just when he was leading in the counting of ballots. If he wins, De Leon said he will do everything in his power to remove the stigma associated with his barangay. Among the 145 villages in Cayagay Valley, Mabini is on the list of drug hot spots, according to Philippine National Police in Region II. — JE/VS
