MANILA – Aside from Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, the visas of military and police officials involved in the Duterte administration’s bloody drug war have also been voided by the United States Senator  Imee Marcos said.

This was announced by the lady senator during  Thursday’s “Kapihan sa Senado” where she also claimed that Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa as no longer keen on going to the US.

The former Ilocos governor said she heard that “other officials aside from Lorenzana were blacklisted.”

However, Marcos noted that unlike Dela Rosa, the cancellation of Lorenzana’s visa has not been confirmed yet.

Dela Rosa,  who spearheaded the government’s bloody drug war when he was police chief,  confirmed that the US government had cancelled  his visa.

“Tsismis lang,  balita ko. Tsismosa ako e,” said Marcos who considered  as “surprising” the alleged report on Lorenzana since he was the  military attache for more than 15 years in Washington.

Marcos said this would be ironic if the rumor on  the revocation of Lorenzana’s passport is true and he has been barred from entering US since he is considered as an  “Amboy,” a colloquial term for “American boy.”

“It’s funny since it’s ironic because there were times we kidded him as Amboy because he stayed for a long time in America, and then (now) he has no visa,” said Marcos.

Marcos said it was likely  the US might have also  revoked the visa of other police and military officers since they were being blamed for all the alleged human rights violations happening in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Marcos said the only way to find out why Philippine officials were blacklisted by the US is for  President  Rodrigo Duterte to attend the upcoming  Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)  summit in Las Vegas this March.

US President Donald Trump has invited ASEAN leaders to attend the summit but Duterte has yet to accept the invitation.

“I have been saying that if the President will attend the ASEAN summit in March, we will see the real situation and find out why Philippine officials are being blacklisted by the Americans,” she said.

But she said it would still be up to Duterte if he would raise the issue should he decide to join the summit.

“I think that it’s very, very important that we should respect the sovereign rights of every country,” Marcos stressed. (SA/IA/Currentph.com)