Albayalde seeks legal advice amid ‘ninja cops’ issue

FILE: “NINJA COPS” CONTROVERSY. Philippine National Police chief, General Oscar Albayalde, explains his side on the alleged involvement with “ninja cops” in the recycling of confiscated illegal drugs, during the Senate hearing on Wednesday (Oct. 9, 2019). He was implicated by his upperclassmen in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) on the alleged recycling of illegal drugs confiscated in 2013 in Mexico, Pampanga during his stint as head of the police regional office in Central Luzon. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

MANILA — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde sought on Friday some legal advice from lawyer Estelito Mendoza amid allegations dragging him into the reselling of seized illegal drugs.

“We paid him a visit so he is so much willing to give legal advice. His team and him being the leader, we asked them on the possible legal case which can be filed against these persons falsely accusing me and spreading lies in the recent Senate hearing,” Albayalde said, after visiting Mendoza in Makati City.

“They should know better. Somebody here is lying and it’s definitely not me… All my statements are covered with documents, not insinuations,” he added.

The PNP chief, who will retire when he turns 56 on November 8, is under fire for his alleged interference in the case of 13 erring police officers who were involved in the reselling of seized illegal drugs from a raid in Mexico town in Pampanga in 2013.

Albayalde, who was Pampanga provincial police chief at the time of the assailed anti-drug raid, was relieved from his post due to command responsibility.

During the Senate investigation on “ninja cops”, an issue which unearthed following a probe on the irregularities in the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA), it was revealed that Albayalde allegedly tried to intervene in the implementation of the dismissal order against the 13 cops involved in the raid.

In the hearing, former PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director Benjamin Magalong and his then deputy, Rudy Lacadin, and former Central Luzon regional police director Aaron Aquino all implicated Albayalde in the raid in Lakeshore View in Pampanga.