On latest drug info: Loot seeks probe

CEBU, Philippines — Retired police general and former Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot is asking the National Bureau of Investigation to open an independent investigation into recent allegations he has returned to the illegal drug trade.

The information was relayed to the press by Police Regional Office - 7 Director Debold Sinas who said no less than President Rodrigo Duterte got hold of the information.

The President reportedly suspects that Loot is distributing in Central Visayas.

“Knowing I am innocent of the charges from the very start, I respectfully request an independent investigation be conducted by your office on the matter to establish the truth about the accusations, past and present,” read Loot’s letter to NBI-7.

Loot said he had been the subject of “much vilification and disinformation” that even the President now believes them to be accurate.

“I am willing to face those charges if true, and will make myself available for interview or requests for information about my life and activities if it will help expedite your investigation,” his letter reads further.

Loot attached in his letter the Investigation Report by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in October 2016 exonerating him of all allegations pertaining or related to illegal drug activities.

The CIDG already closed its administrative and financial investigation against Loot saying he could not be held administratively and or criminally liable for there is no evidence that will implicate him.

“Mayor Vicente Loot performed his mandated functions in the campaign against illegal drugs activities in his town in Daanbantayan, Cebu as mandated in Sec. 51 of RA 9165 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Act of 2002 and has not committed any violation. The assets of Mayor Loot and wife Ma. Luisa Loot which are mostly on the form of real properties and business interest, many of which were brought by wife Ma. Luisa Loot into her marriage with the Mayor in 1991, could not be established as being derived from illegal drugs,” the CIDG said.

The letter was sent to the Office of the Secretary of National Defense through the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, an agency that Loot said has the capability and machinery to gather information needed to file cases against him if he was, indeed, into illegal drugs.

The same letter was also sent to the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association whose investigation, Loot said, will not be bound and/or limited by established laws but by the tenets of the time honored tradition of the academy’s Honor Code, which would remove him from its roster if he is found guilty.

He said being “dishonored, expelled and removed” from the PMA roster is “more shameful and vilifying than imprisonment or death through extra judicial killing.”

Loot was one of five “narco generals” Duterte named in 2016; the other four being former Quezon City Police District chief Edgardo Tinio, former National Capital Region Police Office chief Joel Pagdilao, ex-Western Visayas police chief Bernardo Diaz, and Police Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo Jr.

In March this year, Loot’s name surfaced in a “validated” list of 43 politicians allegedly involved in drugs.

While still mayor, Loot went on leave on November 18, 2018, several months after his family survived an ambush in May last year. The family was disembarking from a passenger boat at the New Maya wharf in Daanbantayan town when five unidentified men opened fire at them. The nanny of Loot’s grandchildren was injured in the incident.

Loot had resorted to performing his duties as mayor from undisclosed locations due to threats to his life. (FREEMAN)