Former Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for operations Police Lieutenant General Benjamin Santos Jr. issued a statement denying his involvement in an alleged “cover-up” in connection with the P6.7 billion shabu case.
“I strongly deny any involvement in whatever impropriety or infraction of law or standard operating procedures if there are any in the alleged cover-up in the buy-bust operation,” Santos, quoted by GMA News, said.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos earlier called on 10 police officers to take a leave to give way to the investigation on the alleged attempted cover-up in the series of operations that netted P6.7 billion worth of shabu in October last year, GMA News also reported.
Abalos earlier launched a probe led by the National Police Commission into the illegal drug case of now-dismissed Police Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr. involving 990 kilograms of confiscated shabu.
According to Abalos, Napolcom’s fact-finding panel was convened due to the supposed slow pace of the police investigation into Mayo’s case. He said Napolcom’s investigation showed that “there is indeed a massive attempt to cover-up the arrest of Mayo.”
Santos said he was “shocked” when Abalos included his name in the list of implicated cops over his “mere presence in a CCTV footage,” and that there was a lack of due process for him to explain his side, GMA News reported.
Santos said he would have informed Abalos that he went to the crime scene after the said buy-bust operation. Santos also denied ordering anyone to embezzle 42 kilograms of the confiscated shabu and noted that he arrived at the scene after the supposed theft took place.
One of the cops named by Abalos, Police Brigadier General Narciso Domingo, who recently has been removed as PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) chief, earlier admitted lapses in police procedures.
But, Domingo said these were part of a tactical move to capture another group of drug suspects in Pasig, which was revealed by Mayo after his arrest in Manila.
Another alleged involved cop, PDEG Special Operations Unit in Region 4A chief Police Colonel Julian Olonan said they planned to use Mayo so they can get to another warehouse in Pasig.
According to Domingo, Azurin directed them to cancel the follow-operation in Pasig because Mayo might get killed.
Santos said he only ordered the police personnel to go after Mayo after he saw the latter’s ID in the vault at the crime scene as he denied any knowledge about the plan for a follow-up operation.
According to him, he was not informed that Mayo was already arrested when he was at the crime scene.
Meanwhile, Santos said he was confused with the call of Abalos for him to take a leave of absence because he had already been relieved from his post in February.
He said he is now in floating status and has no more influence.
“Actually, I’m a bit confused on the instruction na yun kasi I was the deputy PNP chief for operations and I was relieved already,” he said.
