Former Bayan Muna Representative and now Senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares finally spoke about the arrest of his niece, Teri Marina Silva Colmenares in an anti-narco operation conducted by the members of Cebu PNP.
In his official statement, Colmenares asked the cops who arrested his niece for treating her fairly and allowing her to invoke her fundamental rights.
However, he denied that he knows the local beauty queen personally, but confirmed that the alleged narco dealer is his distant relative.
“As with many Filipinos who do not know their larger extended families, I do not know Teri Colmenares personally although I suspect she is a distant relative as she hails from the Visayas. I am told that her great-grandfather and my grandfather may be cousins.” Colmenares said on his Facebook page.
“Having said that, I expect the authorities to treat her with fairness. Whether she is involved in dr*gs or not, her due process rights, like the rights of any other accused, deserve respect. Shaming, ostracizing, or k*ll*ng dr*g suspects has never been the way to deal with the dr*g problem.” he added.
He also condemned his critics for using the arrest of his niece to taint his reputation.
“It is certainly unfair and malicious to use her predicament to try to besmirch my or any person’s reputation, including those of far distant relatives who happen to share her last name,” he said.
Colmenares was arrested yesterday after being pointed out by a narco user as his source.
After being arrested, Cebu PNP said that the suspect was read and informed of her constitutional rights before she was brought to the station for proper profiling and disposition and will be filed a case in court for Violation of RA 9165.
The suspect’s uncle, Neri Colmenares is a known critic of the President’s war against narco.