Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The mystery has been solved.
President Rodrigo Duterte told CNN Philippines, he was the one who ordered Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa to reinstate Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 8 (CIDG-8) head, Supt. Marvin Marcos.
The President cleared Special Presidential Assistant Bong Go of allegations that he was the one who asked Dela Rosa to put Marcos back to his post. The question as to who called up Dela Rosa hit the headlines these past few days.
Related: De Lima: Duterte aide Bong Go called ‘Bato’ to reinstate CIDG-8 chief
In a phone interview with CNN Philippines’ Senior Correspondent Ina Andolong on Friday evening, Duterte explained what happened. Below is a transcript of the interview:
Ina Andolong: “Did you order the reinstatement of Marcos?”
President Duterte: “Ganito yan, si Bong inorderan ko, call. By the time pinasa niya, ang sumagot si Dela Rosa. Sabi ko, do not remove the guy because kasali yan sa… I am doing an investigative job.
Natapos na yun, si Dolina was cleared. Marcos, positive. Kasi I was keeping track of his movements. Alisin mo ako doon, mawala bigla ang… Mawala lahat. Hindi ko masundan.”
(Translation: It’s like this. I asked Bong to call. By the time he passed the phone to me, Dela Rosa was on the line. I told him, do not remove the guy because he’s included in the.. I am doing an investigative job. So that’s done. Dolina (Chief Superintendent Asher Dolina) was cleared. Marcos is positive. Because I was keeping track of his movements. If you remove him, we’ll lose the.. we’ll lose it all. I can’t keep track of him.)
When asked what he would do next about Supt. Marcos, Duterte said the police officer would have to face charges. “(Now we can) let him maintain the right to be heard.”
Dela Rosa had earlier removed Marcos from his post after the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa in a supposed shootout with CIDG-8 operatives at the Baybay City sub-provincial jail early this month.
Marcos was the head of the CIDG team who served a search warrant to Espinosa. Marcos and his men claimed, they shot Espinosa in self-defense after he refused the search warrant and allegedly fired at them using a gun he had managed to sneak into his jail cell.
That incident was subjected to a Senate investigation, where several lapses in operational procedures were found to have been committed by the CIDG-8 team. The warden of the jail also claimed, the CIDG operatives may have taken the hard disk containing CCTV footage of the incident.
In an earlier statement to the media, Dela Rosa said someone “higher up” ordered him to reinstate Marcos. He also referred to this “higher up” as a “kumpare.”
Following Dela Rosa’s statement, Sen. Leila De Lima came out with her own statement, saying “a source” told her Special Presidential Assistant Bong Go was the one who asked for Marcos’ reinstatement.
Both Go and Dela Rosa denied De Lima’s statement.
Controversial call
In a speech earlier during the graduation ceremony of a PNP-HPG Motorcycle Riding Course in Davao City, Duterte had hinted at the identity of the person responsible for the order to give back Marcos his CIDG-8 post.
The President explained why such an order had been given to Dela Rosa.
“Kaya hwag mong galawin (Marcos) kasi gusto kong tingnan. Ngayon kung biglain mo, napuputol yung nagbi-build up ng kaso,” he recounted.
“Hwag mong tanggalin na nagpo-probe pa kami dito kung totoo ba o hindi.”
[Translation: Don’t take him out (as CIDG-8 chief). We are doing a probe into his activities to find out if it is true or not… So don’t remove him because I want to find out (about drug links). If you suddenly relieve him, you would cut off the building of case against him.]
The President said that he eventually found out that Marcos had links with the illegal drug trade, while Chief Superintendent Asher Dolina turned out to be “clean.”
“Dun ko nalaman na si Dolina malinis. Si Marcos may tama,” he said.
[Translation: That’s when I found out that Dolina was clean, but Marcos was not.]
CNN Philippines’ Senior Correspondent Ina Andolong contributed to this report.
