Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde should consider resigning after testimony before the Senate accused him of interfering in the dismissal of 13 of his men who were accused of recycling seized narcotics when he was still the provincial director for Pampanga, Senator Richard Gordon said Wednesday.
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In testimony before the Senate, former police official and current Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said that in 2016, Albayalde had called Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Aaron Aquino, at the time PNP director for Central Luzon, to ask him not to carry out the dismissal.
Gordon said Albayalde’s conduct at the time was “very inappropriate.”
Aquino had told the Senate the same account but later took it back, saying Albayalde had merely sought information on the cases.
Asked if Aquino, too should resign, Gordon said: “It’s up to him. Men of integrity know what to do.”
Albayalde on Wednesday dismissed the allegations against him as “a war of perception” between him and Magalong, whom he said might be envious of him.
“This is a war of perception, this is a war of personality. My personality here is being attacked,” Albayalde told radio dzMM in a mix of English and Filipino. “Maybe he was envious or what, I really don’t know.”
He said Magalong was trying to ruin his reputation but could show no documents to prove his allegations.
Gordon said he has nothing personal against Albayalde, but said the PNP chief was “either pretending to be incompetent” or he really did make the call.
He said Albayalde’s retirement was only two months away anyway so he should consider stepping down.
He said he agreed with Magalong that it was impossible for Albayalde to not know what was happening at the time.
But Gordon acknowledged he could not say if Albayalde had links to the irregular drug operations in Mexico, Pampanga in November 2013, but said he was clearly guilty of neglect of duty.
Magalong told last Tuesday’s joint Senate hearings chaired by Gordon that members of the anti-drug team of the Pampanga Provincial Police Office failed to declare 160 kilos of shabu worth P648 million from a drug raid in 2013.
Magalong said when they conducted their own investigation, they found out that the confiscated shabu was around 200 kilograms. They also discovered that the police officers did not declare the amount seized. which in their estimate would reach P10 million.
Furthermore, Magalong said the police officers did not present the real suspect in the raid, Johnson Lee, who was reportedly allowed to go free after paying them P50 million. Instead, they presented another Chinese man.
Gordon said he was also disappointed with Aquino for allegedly retracting his revelation that Albayalde phoned him in 2016 to request him not implement the dismissal order against the policemen involved in the drug operation.
He said perhaps Aquino had bowed to peer pressure.
“That’s when you will know if you are a real man,” Gordon said.
In an interview with reporters after the Senate investigation on the issue Tuesday, Aquino said Albayalde did not intervene in the dismissal order and only asked for a review and status of the operation, echoing Albayalde’s defense during the hearing.
Albayalde told Gordon’s panel that he merely asked about the status of the policemen because their families and friends were asking him about them.
In 2017, the dismissal order against the 13 so-called ninja cops was downgraded into a one-rank demotion for the involved officers.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he would wait for the Senate panel and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to complete their investigation on the ninja cops before deciding on the fate of the involved policemen, including Albayalde.
Speaking to reporters before his departure for Russia, Duterte said Año may conduct his own investigation, which will be his basis to “dismiss, discharge, terminate any or all of them.”
“We are not totally bound by the investigation of other departments. Though I would say that most of the testimony or declarations given in the Senate were under oath, I supposed that everybody was telling the truth there,” Duterte said.
“But procedural due process must be followed. I cannot just wait for the Senate, its report, then adopt it as my own,” he added.
The Chief Executive also assured the public that he will be objective in his decision.
“If it comes to a serious thing [such] as dismissing a top official here and there, it has to be for a good reason and there must be enough proof,” Duterte said.
In a separate development, the Department of Justice on Wednesday said the United States visa
given to suspected drug queen Guia Gomez-Castro has been canceled.
“Upon request of the Department of Justice, the US visa granted to alleged drug queen Guia Castro has been canceled,” Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said, in a text message to reporters.
National Capital Region Police Office director Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar earlier said Castro, former chairwoman of Barangay 484 Zone 48 in Sampaloc, Manila, left the country for Bangkok, Thailand on Sept. 21 then flew to Taiwan and then to the United States on Sept. 25.
“The BI [Bureau of Immigration] is now working with US Immigration authorities to effect her deportation to the Philippines,” Perete added.
Police have linked Castro to ninja cops, saying she distributed their recycled drugs.
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