Neri Colmenares (davaotoday.com file photo)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Former Bayan Muna Party-list representative Neri Colmenares criticized the online reports spreading over the weekend, linking him to a former Cebu beauty queen who was arrested by authorities in a drug busts on Saturday in Kamputhaw, Cebu City on Saturday.
Anti-narcotics operatives in Cebu arrested Teri Marina Silva Colmenares yesterday after she was identified to be involved in a drug trade for selling party drugs. The 22-year old Colmenares was a 2018 Binibining Cebu pageant candidate.
“The arrest of a certain Teri Colmenares in a supposed drug bust in Cebu yesterday has been picked up by fake news sites and spun to make it appear that the suspect is my niece,” Colmenares said in a statement on Sunday.
Colmenares, however, said that she doesn’t know Terry personally but he suspects that “she is a distant relative as she hails from the Visayas. I am told that her great grandfather and my grandfather may be cousins.”
“It is 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,” the militant human rights defender said.
He also appealed to authorities to treat the drug suspect with fairness.
“Whether she is involved in drugs or not, her due process rights, like the rights of any other accused, deserve respect. Shaming, ostracizing or killing drug suspects has never been the way to deal with the drug problem,” Colmenares said. (davaotoday.com)
