"The probe tells us it is really difficult to end the drug problem."
The Senate hearing on the so-called ninja cops—an issue that has snarled PNP chief General Oscar Albayalde, who is scheduled to retire in a few weeks—is getting hot and personal.
As I write this piece, both Mayor Benjie Magalong and General Albayalde are in the air waves explaining their positions. We have to assume that the name of the PNP chief came out when Mayor Magalong testified in executive session during the first hearing, because Albayalde was the provincial police director of Pampanga when an anti-drug operation was conducted in Mexico, Pampanga on Nov. 29, 2013. This operation went astray.
Based on the statements of several witnesses, the reported amount of the drug haul was underreported and a big-named drug lord was apparently allowed to go free after agreeing to cough out P50 million for his release.
The operating team led by then-Superintendent Rodney Baluyo reported only 36 kilos instead of 200 as many witnesses said in their statements. From the way now-demoted PMajor Baluyo was answering the questions, it was apparent that he was either lying or hiding something. He was evasive, and had a hard time explaining discrepancies especially on the time when the operation was conducted. The conduct of the operation, as he told it, was also so sloppy that it is hard to believe that he would go to a formal Senate hearing and relate stories whose dots he is finding difficult to connect.
What this hearing tells us, the public, is that it is difficult to stop the drug problem. The recycling of confiscated drugs back to the market by dirty cops has happened before and sadly, they are even bigger than this Pampanga case. The money in drugs is so huge that unless a public official is made of steel, it is easy to fall to the temptation.
An officer once told me when I was still in the service: “Sir, I always thought that the money is in jueteng, I was wrong. It is in drugs.”
I was also told then that there is a new car, full of money, parked somewhere in the metro area. It is to be given as a bribe to law-enforcement personnel. When a drug lord is arrested, so the story goes, all that has to be done is to give the key of that parked car in exchange for the freedom of the arrested drug lord. The huge bribe money is probably the reason why it is not too often that big drug lords are arrested or sent to jail.
The “ninja” cop hearing is still going on and we do not know how it will end. President Duterte, before he left for Russia, said that he would wait until the conclusion of the Senate hearing before DILG Secretary Año initiates an investigation to determine whether further action needs to be taken.
As to the Senate hearing which will resume today, a lot will depend on the kind of questions the senators will ask. Certainly, there is a lot of questions that need answers. I hope the public gets to hear them all so that they can make their own conclusion.
* * *
Retired Police Major General and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong belongs to the PMA class of 1982. He is from Baguio and he first came to national attention as the PNP officer designated to investigate the aftermath of the now infamous Mamasapano operation in Mindanao on Jan. 25, 2015.
Although the investigation did not say that Aquino was liable, it did conclude that because of the doctrine of command responsibility, he was ultimately responsible. Magalong showed that he was not afraid to face controversy.
I first encountered Mayor Magalong in February 1986 during those tumultuous last days of February in Baguio City. He was then the company commander of the constabulary company in Buguias, Benguet. When the Armed Forces was divided on whom to support, he brought his men to Baguio to join the faction of then-PC chief Fidel V. Ramos and then-Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.
As I was also with this group, he joined our group at the cathedral grounds atop Session Road and provided the needed perimeter security. In 1990, when I was designated provincial commander of the province of Benguet, I found him on station as the operations officer of the command. I therefore kept him on as operations officer and we worked together for almost two years including during the earthquake that devastated the City of Baguio in 1990.
Because of the 1992 elections, I had to be transferred to Batangas in order to comply with Comelec regulations. As to the class of 1986 of PNP chief PGeneral Oscar Albayalde, I only worked with one of them when I was provincial commander of Kalinga-Apayao. I did not have the pleasure of working with General Albayalde and I only met him once during his last hurrah at the PMA when he was given a testimonial parade last Sept. 28. I was then escorting a couple of friends from the United Kingdom. Since we also watched the parade, I saw that he thoroughly enjoyed the occasion.
I therefore understand that the hearing is somehow affecting him because he is about to retire and should retire in glory. Still, he has a strong personality and he is the PNP Chief. Furthermore, he knows that what is important is the organization and ultimately, the truth.