PNP takes on challenge to win back Duterte’s trust

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa is taking it as a challenge to renew President Duterte’s trust in the police force after he expressed “utmost disappointment” over recent controversies involving policemen. 

Gamboa, who took over this week after PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde went on terminal leave, confirmed that Duterte gave them a dressing down during a command conference with top PNP officials last Tuesday at Malacañang. 

The STAR earlier reported that Duterte expressed his disappointment with the PNP, adding that the government had already given policemen everything and yet allegations of their involvement in drugs continue.  

“Kaya nga it’s a challenge on my leadership dahil OIC ako, that I should do something about the impression of the President. I should take it upon myself, dapat may initiative kung ano ang dapat kong gawin at pini-prepare ko yan,” Gamboa told radio station dzMM. 

Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesman, echoed Gamboa’s sentiment that they are taking this as a challenge to change their institution, and that they understand the President’s disappointment.

Banac said they would continue to serve the public in terms of their campaign against criminality, illegal drugs and scalawag policemen. 

Before police officials got their dressing down, Gamboa said that he was reintroduced by Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to the President during the command conference.  

However, Duterte has yet to announce his choice for the replacement of Albayalde.

Albayalde decided to go on “non-duty status” last Sunday over the controversy.

He is currently undergoing back-to-back investigations by the Senate and the Department of the Interior and Local Government after he was accused by retired police officials of meddling with a controversial anti-drug operation in 2013 when he was still provincial director of Pampanga. 

Following the allegations, Gamboa assured the public that there will be no bias in the reinvestigation as he now has the power to review the charges against the alleged “ninja cops,” given his limited authority as PNP OIC. 

Gamboa added that he will be holding an evaluative conference this weekend and another command conference with top officials of the police force to review all pending drug cases. 

Gamboa said he is requiring the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) and the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management to present the current backlog on pending administrative cases. 

The newly installed leader of the PNP said he is taking things “day by day” amid the controversies the police institution is facing. 

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong was chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) that investigated the alleged link of Albayalde to the 13 policemen who reportedly sold 160 kilos of shabu worth P650 million seized during a raid in Mexico, Pampanga on Nov. 29, 2013.

Magalong accused Albayalde of protecting the policemen implicated in the raid and intervened to change their dismissal order to demotion.

Albayalde denied his involvement in the operations of the ninja cops that sold the seized drugs.

He pointed out that although he was relieved from his post as Pampanga police provincial director, he had never been charged formally in court. Thus, there is no reason to link him to any illegal activities.

Another retired police general, Rudy Lacadin, who was Magalong’s deputy at the CIDG, claimed that during the course of his investigation of the 13 Pampanga policemen who allegedly sold the seized shabu in Pampanga, Albayalde told him in a phone conversation that he might have received a share of the money from the operation.

Senators who recently conducted an inquiry on the ninja cops have also found suspicious Albayalde’s other phone call to then PNP Region 3 chief Aaron Aquino, now director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), sometime in the last quarter of 2016 asking about the case of his former subordinates led by intelligence officer Supt. Rodney Baloyo, who were ordered dismissed in 2014 following Magalong’s internal probe. 

Albayalde was ordered relieved as Pampanga provincial police director owing to command responsibility following the raid but no administrative or criminal charges were filed against him.

Aquino admitted that he indeed received a call from Albayalde who asked him not to implement the dismissal order. At that time, Albayalde was chief of the National Capital Region Police Office.

Aquino said he later transferred the 13 policemen to Mindanao.