Name police execs in drug recycling — DILG
Police officers allegedly involved in the recycling of illegal drugs should be named, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said yesterday.
“Sabihin natin ’yung pangalan (Let’s reveal the names), specific, para ’yung (so that the) Philippine National Police (PNP) will do the appropriate action,” Año told reporters at a news briefing in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Año made the statement after Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director general Aaron Aquino told a Senate hearing that the recycling of illegal drugs by rogue policemen notoriously known as ninja cops continues rampant and is done in cahoots with an alleged drug queen in Manila.
This was followed by the revelation of former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong that some highlevel police officials are also into the same illegal activity.
Año said it should have been better if the PNP was informed first instead of the Senate at a hearing, a move that has stirred controversy. He added that the police organization has an internal cleansing campaign to weed out scalawags.
For PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde, the PDEA should have tipped them off first on the information that some lawmen are into drug recycling.
“I would like to respectfully urge the PDEA to respect and maintain inter-agency courtesy and protocol on mutual cooperation,” Albayalde said.
The least the PDEA should have done, Albayalde said, was to inform them before going public.
As proof that their internal cleansing strategy is working, Albayalde said they have filed administrative charges against 8,733 police officers for alleged involvement in illegal drugs and other illicit activities.
Of the number, 448 found involved in drug-related activities were dismissed from the service.
Albayalde said of the 87 ninja cops they have identified in the drug watchlist of President Duterte, 17 are still in the active service, four went AWOL or absent without leave, 31 were forced to resign, 33 were dismissed or separated from the service while they have no records on the remaining two.
Albayalde said 22 more police officers consisting of three officers and 19 non-commissioned officers are under investigation for drug recycling.
“All of these policemen are under strict monitoring,” Albayalde said.
The police chief did not give a figure but said some of the police officers are from the Manila Police District.
‘Possibly Albayalde’
Meanwhile, it is possible that Albayalde was the ranking police official being linked in the recycling of illegal drugs, according to National Police Commission (Napolcom) vice chairman Rogelio Casurao, but he cleared the country’s top cop of these allegations.
During the same briefing, Casurao brought up the time when Albayalde, then a police colonel, was relieved from his post as Pampanga police director over alleged anti-illegal drugs operations of policemen in the province.
“I think these ninja cops have been well-explained at the time when General Albayalde was the provincial director of Pampanga when this incident cropped up,” Casurao said.
Albayalde was relieved under the doctrine of command responsibility in 2014 after police officers of the provincial anti-illegal drugs operations task group were accused of irregularities in an operation that resulted in the confiscation of millions of pesos worth of shabu and the arrest of a Chinese national in Mexico.
Casurao, however, pointed out that Albayalde was never included in the list of police officers that have been charged.
“His relief was more administrative than anything else,” he said.
Asked to elaborate, Casurao told reporters in an ambush interview that it was apparent the issue of ninja cops or police officers recycling illegal drugs seized in police operations may have originated from the previous incident in Pampanga, but Albayalde had explained it.
“And he believed that it could have been the source of all these speculations kaya tiningnan ko naman, he was relieved administratively kasi standard operating procedure naman ’yun,” Casurao said of Albayalde.