RETURN TO POLITICS. Businessman Ricardo “Cano” Tan files his certificate of candidacy for councilor of Bacolod City before the Commission on Elections on Friday (Oct. 8, 2021). Tan was elected number one city councilor from 2016 to 2019 but took a leave after he and his wife were ambushed in December 2018, and after he was linked by President Rodrigo Duterte to the illegal drug trade in January 2019, but was eventually cleared of any complicity. (Photo courtesy of Carla Cañet)
BACOLOD CITY – Former councilor Ricardo “Cano” Tan filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the same post in this city on Friday, signaling his return to local politics more than a year after he was cleared of illegal drug links by government authorities.
“(With) God as my protector and you, the people of Bacolod, as my backbone, I swear to serve our City Council with utmost integrity and honesty,” Tan, a businessman, said in a video message.
He said he is running “independent from two big groups” in the city and is the official candidate of the Aksyon Demokratiko headed by Manila mayor and presidential candidate Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
Tan, who was elected number one councilor from 2016 to 2019, took a leave from the City Council after he and his wife were ambushed on their way home on Dec. 14, 2018.
On Jan. 12, 2019, Tan was linked by President Rodrigo Duterte to the illegal drug trade during his speech at the birthday party of a Bacolod-based businessman.
In May this year, he appeared before the local media after more than two years of absence from the public eye.
During a press conference held at their family-owned Campuestohan Highland Resort in Talisay City, Tan thanked Duterte for directing authorities to validate the allegations linking him to illegal drugs.
He disclosed that during one of the President’s visits to Bacolod, his wife Anita and son Ralph met with the Chief Executive, after which Duterte told the concerned government agencies that “all accusations against me should be validated and revalidated.”
Tan released copies of the clearance/certification he obtained from the Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas) on Aug. 20, 2020, “clearing (his) name and that of (his) family from any links or participation to alleged illegal drug trade activities.”
The “validation and revalidation process” involved the Philippine National Police and its Drug Enforcement Group, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Army, and National Bureau of Investigation, according to his legal counsel Andrei Norman Saril. (PNA)
