MANILA, Philippines — A “very, very strong case” may be filed against Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, for allegedly intervening in the case of “ninja cops”, or police officers recycling confiscated narcotics, Sen. Richard Gordon said Saturday.
A Senate hearing last week focused on a questionable drug raid conducted in Mexico, Pampanga on Nov. 29, 2013 involving Albayalde’s subordinates, who were accused of recycling some 160 kilograms of shabu. Albayalde was provincial police director of Pampanga at the time.
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At a press conference, Gordon said the recent allegations against the country’s top cop “can build a very, very strong case criminally and administratively.”
“We have enough to get Albayalde,” Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, former director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, had claimed that Albayalde’s men were not dismissed as they should have been.
In a separate testimony earlier this week, retired police general Rudy Lacadin — who conducted a probe into the irregular Pampanga raid — recounted a telephone conversation between him and Albayalde, wherein the latter claimed receiving some of the money from the reselling of drugs.
Albayalde had denied the allegations and said he was considering filing charges against his accusers Magalong and Lacadin.
Albayalde cites power struggle in PNP
The PNP chief said efforts to destroy him are part of the internal power struggle within the police force to prevent him from recommending to the president his choice of successor.
In the same press briefing Saturday, Gordon said authorities can still go after Albayalde even if he decides to retire early amid the scandal.
Albayalde is set to retire on November 8.
“We have to lay the standard. I don’t care if you’re retiring. In the first place, that’s wishful thinking,” Gordon said.
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he was told that the nation’s top cop will finish his term, adding that Albayalde had proposed an early turnover of command on October 29 before President Rodrigo Duterte leaves to attend a regional summit. — with a report from The STAR/Christina Mendez