Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The rainy weather was the backdrop for troops paying their courtesy to a retiring police officer — Director Benjamin Magalong.
Magalong was focused and his stance firm before the troops — just like how he defended the findings of the PNP Board of Inquiry (BOI) on the bloody Mamasapano clash in 2015.
The BOI said then President Noynoy Aquino, PNP chief Alan Purisima, and Special Action Force (SAF) chief Getulio Napenas were liable for the deaths of 44 SAF commandos in their mission to get terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao, at dawn on January 25.
Magalong was then chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. He was a potential PNP chief.
But he surrendered his ambitions in exchange for coming up with a fair and truthful report on the Mamasapano case.
“We are no longer thinking of our careers here. We have to set aside our personal ambitions para lang maging objective kami dito [so we can be objective here]. Because we owe the public, we owe the SAF 44, we owe those families na mabigyan ng hustisya ang kanilang namatay [to give justice to their loved ones who died],” an emotional Magalong said days after they released the report.
He and 10 other BOI members, and PNP chief Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa, were awarded with medals for exposing the truth.
“He could have been the PNP chief,” said Dela Rosa.
His mistah or fellow from Philippine Military Academy Sandigan Class of 1982, former PNP chief Ricardo Marquez, once said if only he had a power to promote Magalong, he’ll make him a four-star officer just like him.
But Magalong was never promoted until his retirement.
Time did not allow another star to be donned on his shoulders even if he became the third highest police officer when Dela Rosa became PNP chief in July.
The law states a police officer can no longer be promoted a year before his retirement.
“A leader gives up his perks and privileges for the sake of transparency and accountability. A genuine leader is always willing to give up his career, ambitions, and aspirations in pursuit of the truth,” Magalong said during his retirement honors in Camp Crame.
Magalong’s two stars remained the shiniest among senior police officers.
As deputy chief for operations, colleagues said he is a voice of reason and intelligence – an equalizer as the PNP confronts its boldest battle in recent history: the war on drugs.
“Sa pag-retire mo, parang akong nawalan ng right wing… Wala na ako big brother na aalalay sa akin kapag ako’y kinokontra ng matitigas na ulo na upperclass(men),” Dela Rosa told Magalong.
[Translation: It’s like I’m losing my right wing with your retirement. I don’t have a big brother anymore to support me when the hard-headed upperclass(men) go against me.]
Magalong is also a veteran combatant. He was assigned in the Cordilleras and Mindanao fighting rebel groups during his early days at the then Philippine Constabulary as a lieutenant and captain.
He even founded the SAF Seaborne and Sniper units.
In 2006, he was detained for alleged rebellion against the Arroyo administration.
An ‘outcast’ in the PNP after his detention, he was assigned to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in 2007.
Since then, he held various positions in the Quezon City Police District, Directorate for Police Community Relations, and Cordillera Regional Police Office.
“There was no doubt I learned so much from these assignments, foremost, my outlook on the concept of leadership,” Magalong said.
“I learned service with honor and uncompromising integrity. I had the opportunity to serve as a special kind of warrior of the PNP. I became a public servant that persevered and thrived on adversity,” he added.
For former PNP officer-in-charge Leonardo Espina, Magalong “is one of the best officers the Philippine Constabulary and the Philippine National Police ever had.”
Magalong rarely granted interviews. But he never gave nonsense answers during media briefings.
Whenever pressed with questions requiring vital or sensitive details during ambush interviews, he jokingly dismissed them by greeting his mother.
“Binabati ko ang nanay ko [I would like to say hi to my mom]” while waiving at TV cameras.
Now in retirement, Magalong says he will always be a public servant at heart.
And after 38 years, it’s back to civilian life, full-time with his family.
