BELEAGUERED police General Oscar Albayalde is not off the hook even as he went on leave in advance of his scheduled retirement next month amid an ongoing Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry into his alleged involvement with ninja cops linked to syndicates recycling seized illegal drugs.
Sen. Richard Gordon, Blue Ribbon probe chairman, confirmed he is already circulating a “Committee Report on Ninja Cops” to members of the panel containing findings on the multibillion worth of over 200 kilos of illegal drug shabu that were returned to the illegal drug market, with only 36 kilos acknowledged as having been seized.
“I gave copies of the report to all senators concerned—all over the country and abroad, some attending the International Parliamentary Union [IPU],” Gordon said after getting the go-ahead from Senate President Vicente Sotto (in Belgrade for the IPU Assembly) and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon to release highlights of the initial report.
Gordon told reporters in a press conference on Friday, “There is tremendous concern for the Senate to release this report.”
The Blue Ribbon chief said Albayalde tops the list of PNP officers who should be charged with malfeasance for the alleged shabu recycling—as he relied solely on the claims of his intelligence officer when he was Pampanga police director, alleged ninja cop Rodney Baloyo. Of 236 kilos of shabu seized, only 36 were declared in the police report.
When asked by reporters later, however, Gordon, a lawyer, stressed that he did not wish to “preempt the Secretary of Justice” in deciding whom to indict in the mess—explosive revelations of drug recycling that arose in the course of an inquiry into irregularities and rackets in the New Bilibid Prisons, such as the sale of good conduct time allowance (GCTA) credits that reduced the period in prison of convicted drug lords.
Gordon maintained Albayalde was liable for failing to do his job of properly supervising the 2013 Pampanga raid where Baloyo, et al, figured, and later even meddling as they were facing investigation; and could face penalties including life imprisonment plus P500,000 to P10-million fine, “in addition to absolute perpetual disqualification from any public office.”
Baloyo and unnamed members of his “buy-bust team” was also cited for malfeasance in the Blue Ribbon report for failing to “properly account for the seized drug contraband.”
“This is just an initial report,” Gordon said, adding that Senate probers are still awaiting the rearrest of suspected drug lord Johnson Lee who we heard is in Korea,” as well as another foreign drug suspect and certain police officers.
Gordon described the Blue Ribbon report as “game changing,” noting that “for the first time, we have a Blue Ribbon [inquiry] that really unmasked the ninja cops. Something that was whispered about only before—has now come out.”
Gordon said “it is important to unmask ninja cops…in order to dispel people’s fear that cops can’t be trusted to do right” at checkpoints or during raids.
The Senate chief prober thanked retired police general now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who was originally called in just to testify on wrongdoing inside the NBP like the kubol [lavish quarters] for influential drug convicts and other rackets, but subsequently revealed the case of the Pampanga ninja cops.
At the same time, Gordon also noted that the court itself, which dismissed a case against Johnson Lee, had already declared “it’s not a buy bust but a hulidap.”
Moreover, Gordon recalled that the court made note of all the wrong moves—contrary to all established protocol and law—of Albayalde’s men in Pampanga; and the court even noted the apparent palit ulo (replacement of heads, literally), whereby suspect Lee was not the man presented in court.
Based on findings, Senate probers indicated that Albayalde should be indicted for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for intervening on behalf of his men who were then being subjected to disciplinary sanctions.
Gordon noted that Albayalde failed to investigate his men after details of the botched “raid” surfaced. Worse, he had Baloyo and another policeman, Joven de Guzman, returned to active duty—Baloyo in Tagaytay and de Guzman in Antipolo.