Senator says police chief should resign

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte’s police chief should consider quitting over his negligence as former Pampanga provincial director that had allowed a multimillion drug recycling scheme by rogue cops in 2013, Senator Richard J. Gordon said yesterday.

“He should consider that option,” Mr. Gordon told reporters, adding that Philippine National Police chief General Oscar D. Albayalde may have been liable for “neglect of duty.”

The lawmaker also said he was dismayed that Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron N. Aquino downplayed his initial testimony about Mr. Albayalde trying to stop the 13 cops’ dismissal back then.

Mr. Albayalde did not answer a call and mobilephone message seeking his comment.

Mr. Albayalde allegedly tried to stop the dismissal of 13 rogue cops who recycled illegal drugs in an illicit business that leads all the way to the Philippines’ national jail and several regional police offices.

Mr. Albayalde had intervened in the dismissal of the cops from Pampanga in 2016, when he was still acting regional director for Metro Manila, Mr. Aquino earlier told senators investigating corruption inside the country’s jails. Mr. Aquino was a former regional director for central Luzon.

Mr. Aquino said Mr. Albayalde had asked him to review the cases of the 13 officers because they were his people.

Mr. Aquino narrated his phone conversation with Mr. Albayalde on the prodding of Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who sat beside the PDEA chief during the hearing. Mr. Magalong, who first divulged the involvement of rogue cops in the illegal drug trade inside jails, was a director of the PNP Criminal

Investigation and Detection

Group at that time.

Mr. Albayalde confirmed the conversation but said he was only checking the status of the cases against the policemen who were set to be fired over a questionable anti-drug operation in 2013.

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