A teary-eyed Aaron Aquino, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said he received threats against his family after he testified that Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde called him up and asked him not to dismiss 13 of his men who were accused of reselling illegal drugs seized in 2013.
READ: Senate to unmask ‘ninja’ cops
READ: Showdown in Senate: PNP chief draws flak
“I was thinking of my family who are now put in much deeper danger,” Aquino told senators investigating corruption in the prison system.
A few days ago, Aquino said he received a phone call from a friend who confirmed that some personalities were plotting against his family. He remembered the exact words were: ‘Sir, pinaghahandaan nila ang pamilya mo.’ (Sir, they are preparing to move against your family.)”
“I know the pressure and challenges of my position as the main drug enforcer of the country but I literally broke down into small pieces [upon] hearing the information, considering that my security escorts had also been recalled,” Aquino said.
He told the panel chaired by Senator Richard Gordon that he felt helpless and defeated.
“I was asking myself: Is this fight worth it? Why will I gamble the safety of my family? I kept thinking about my daughters and my sons, the youngest being only 12 years old. Is it right for me to gamble this? Against those who are already enemies?” he said.
He said while it was true that Albayalde called him up in 2016 to check on the status of his men, he also asked Aquino, then police director for Central Luzon, not to carry out a dismissal order against them.
The men, led by Police Supt. Rodney Raymundo Louie Baloyo from the Pampanga Provincial Police Office conducted a raid at the Lakeshore View in Mexico, Pampanga in November 2013, when Albayalde was still Pampanga police director.
Baloyo and his raiding team declared 38 kilos of shabu during a raid in Mexico, Pampanga, in 2013, and arrested a Chinese high-profile drug trafficker, Johnson Lee.
But the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, then headed by Benjamin Magalong, now mayor of Baguio City, said they actually seized 200 kilos of shabu.
Returning to the witness stand in the Senate, Aquino testified that when he asked why he should not dismiss the cops, Albayalde, by then Metro Manila police director, said they were his men.
Aquino said he told Albayalde that he would seek a review of the case against Baloyo and the 12 other Pampanga policemen, and that he would send them to Mindanao.
The dismissal order was issued in March 2016, but in 2017, Region 3 police chief Amador Corpuz, a classmate of Albayalde, signed an order to instead demote them by one rank.
In remarks to the press, Aquino backed Albayalde’s statement that he merely telephoned to ask about the status of the case.
But another former PNP officer, Magalong, told the committee about Albayalde’s order to Aquino.
Magalong said Aquino himself had told him that Albayalde had asked not him not to implement the dismissal order.
On Thursday, Aquino said he was in a “deep quandary.”
Magalong said he too was worried for the safety of his family.
He said he continued to receive death threats after he testified at the Senate about crooked cops who were reselling drugs seized in police raids.
He said he would beef up his security to address the threats.
On Thursday, Gordon said Baloyo, cited for contempt, would be sent to the New Bilibid Prison for repeatedly providing false testimony at the Senate hearings.
Inspector Ma. Benilda Bansil and CO3 Veronica Buno of the Bureau of Corrections, on the other hand, would be detained at the Senate.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa had asked that the two officials be cited for contempt for lying about their participation in the sale of Good Conduct Time Allowance, uncovered following the aborted release of former Calauan mayor Antonio Sanchez, a convicted rapist and murderer.
Bansil and Buno were tagged by Yolanda Camilon as among those who facilitated the supposed early release of her common-law husband, Gadford Gamboa in exchange for P50,000.
Gordon and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Franklin Drilon took turns grilling Baloyo on the circumstances surrounding the drug bust in Mexico, Pampanga sometime in November 2013.
Baloyo repeatedly gave statements contrary to the testimonies of the witnesses presented in the joint Senate hearings presided by Gordon.
On several occasions, Gordon gave Baloyo the opportunity to retract his testimony, but he insisted he was the one telling the truth.
The senators said he lied when he said the raiding team seized only 36 kilos of shabu because subsequent investigations showed they took about 200 kilos and P10 million in cash, instead of the P100,000 he declared.
Magalong said this was the reason cheap shabu flooded Central Luzon after the raid.
Baloyo had also repeatedly insisted that they arrested Ding WenKun, who turned out to be a Korean and not Lee, who was released.
Sr. Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, who was Pampanga Provincial Police Office OIC after Albayalde was relieved of the same post, testified in the same hearing that the “spot report” detailing the drug bust operation was all lies.
Baloyo insisted the spot report was accurate.
In the House, the leftist Makabayan bloc demanded Albayalde’s resignation.
House Resolution 416, introduced by Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate, called for the resignation Albayalde and other officials implicated in the alleged practice of ‘drug recycling’ “to pave the way for a credible investigation” into the issue.
The lawmakers also said that Congress must be able to recommend the filing of appropriate charges against the officials involved.
“Credible investigation necessitates the resignation of those implicated, including PNP Chief Albayalde, so as to remove any suspicion of a whitewash or that the investigation has been influenced, evidence have been tampered or suppressed, and witnesses have been pressured. It should be noted that Albayalde was among the first to quickly deny the exposè of drug recycling,” the group said in the resolution.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has vowed a “thorough and fair” investigation into the allegations against Albayalde.
But Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the DILG would “presume regularity” on the part of the police chief.
READ: PNP chief turns tables on accuser
READ: ‘PNP chief must be ready for grilling’