MANILA, Philippines — A police official accused of being a “ninja cop” has claimed that the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) failed to present a key witness in the charges against him and his co-respondents in connection with the 2013 anti-drug raid in Mexico, Pampanga.
In his rejoinder, Maj. Rodney Baloyo IV called for the dismissal of the criminal complaints against him, citing that the CIDG did not use as a witness alleged Chinese drug trader Ding Wenkun.
In Wenkun’s absence, the CIDG used Neil Gernace as its substitute witness, but Baloyo said Gernace “had no personal knowledge” of what Wenkun was supposedly saying.
Baloyo said Gernace’s admission that Wenkun gave his testimony in Chinese compounded the problem since neither Gernace nor notary public Olimpio Datu understood the language.
This is “double hearsay” because Gernace reportedly based the authenticity of Wenkun’s testimony on the translation by a prison inmate, Albert Chua, Baloyo said.
He said the DOJ should dismiss outright the complaints filed against him because the case was resolved in 2014 and affirmed with finality by way of automatic review in 2017.
The CIDG accused Baloyo of violating Republic Act 9165 (the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002), particularly Section 27 (failure to account for the seized drugs) of Article II, Section 29 (planting of evidence) of Article II, and Section 32 (violating regulations of the Dangerous Drugs Board) of Article II and Section 92 (delay and bungling of the prosecution of drug cases) of Article XI.
The CIDG also accused Baloyo of two counts of violating Article 211-A (qualified bribery) and Article 171 (falsification) of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).
The charges stemmed from the 2013 raid wherein a 13-man team led by Baloyo entered a house rented by Korean Johnson Lee, allegedly a large-scale drug trafficker.
The raiding team allegedly released Lee in exchange for 160 kilos of shabu worth P648 million, P50 million, brand new sports utility vehicles and presented Wengkun as a suspect in Lee’s stead.