Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 10) — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said there may be members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) tampering with the evidences of cases against drug-linked policemen, allowing them to remain in the force.
The Senate on Wednesday continued their probe into the controversial 2013 drug raid in Pampanga where 13 policemen allegedly kept 160 kilograms of shabu and accepted bribes of ₱50 million pesos and new cars to release a Korean drug trafficker. Instead of dismissal, the accused officers were demoted by one-rank and reassigned to Mindanao years after the raid.
Drilon suspected that some PNP personnel may be deliberately manipulating evidence to keep these drug-linked officers in power.
“If they are involved and yet they are reinstated on the basis of the case file, [it] only means one thing, somebody is manipulating the record so that no evidence is presented, so that when it gets to the [National Police Commission], the NAPOLCOM will have no choice but to dismiss (the case) that is why many of them are reinstated,” Drilon said Wednesday.
He noted that the police report on the raid six years ago used the exact testimony of now Police Major Rodney Baloyo, whom the Senate later accused of fabricating the details he presented. Baloyo, the officer who led the shady Pampanga operation, is currently detained for allegedly lying in a legislative hearing.
“I think the web of conspiracy is something that we must expose in order to stop this practice,” Drilon said.
Former Police Regional Office 3 Regional Director PCSupt. Rudy Lacadin also lamented the recurring presence of officers in the PNP who were charged with drug-related offenses.
“Kaya palagi tayong may problema sa mga pulis [The reason why we always have problems among the police is] because they can always return to other channels in the PNP service, so in effect, the law does not have a deterrent effect as far as PNP persons concerned involved sa [with] illegal drugs,” Lacadin told the Senate.
NAPOLCOM Vice Chairman and Executive Director Rogelio Casurao explained that the sanctions against policemen is the decision of the PNP regional appellate board and does not mainly come from his agency.
“If it is true, that there are reinstatement[s], it is not the handiwork of the NAPOLCOM,” Casurao said.
Senator Richard Gordon questioned PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde, asking him why he did not outright dismiss erring policemen. Albayalde said they follow a procedure for relieving officers. He maintained that they have sanctioned thousands of officers since the beginning of his predecessor incumbent Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa’s term in 2016.
“We have charged more than 8,000 of our people already and dismissed more than 4,000 of our people for various reasons,” Albayalde said. “We are continuously improving our disciplinary mechanisms.”
