{"id":234590,"date":"2019-10-14T20:04:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T00:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=234590"},"modified":"2019-10-14T20:04:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T00:04:31","slug":"testimonies-vs-albayalde-may-not-stand-in-court-panelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/14\/testimonies-vs-albayalde-may-not-stand-in-court-panelo\/","title":{"rendered":"Testimonies vs. Albayalde may not stand in court: Panelo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Panelo made this remark after Senator Richard Gordon said statements made by former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and former CIDG deputy director, Col. Rudy Lacadin against Albayalde were enough to pin Albayalde down in his alleged involvement in the recycling of illegal drugs in 2013. (PCOO File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA –<\/strong>– Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Monday described the testimonies of two former police generals against resigned Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, General Oscar Albayalde, as \u201cproblematic\u201d, as these could only be dismissed by the court.<\/p>\n

Panelo made this remark after Senator Richard Gordon said statements made by former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and former CIDG deputy director, Col. Rudy Lacadin against Albayalde were enough to pin Albayalde down in his alleged involvement in the recycling of illegal drugs in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam mo ang problema doon sa<\/em>\u00a0statement\u00a0ni<\/em>\u00a0general (Lacadin),\u00a0meron siyang sinabing \u2018Di ko ho alam kung nagbibiro o hindi\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(You know what\u2019s problematic about the general\u2019s statement, he said \u2018I can\u2019t tell whether he was joking or not\u2019),\u201d said Panelo, who is also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa hukuman hindi puwede \u2018yun pag ganyan ang salita mo wala na<\/em>, dismissed\u00a0ang kaso mo<\/em>\u00a0(Before the court, it\u2019s unacceptable if that\u2019s the way you speak. Your case could be dismissed),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Magalong claimed Albayalde deferred the dismissal order against his subordinates involved in the recycling of illegal drugs while Lacadin said the resigned PNP admitted receiving money from the reselling of drugs but \u201conly a little\u201d.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Lacadin\u2019s testimony was weak because he could not confirm whether Albayalde was joking about receiving money or not.<\/p>\n

Panelo added that Magalong\u2019s statement was based on \u201chearsay\u201d and not personal knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi rin papasok sa hukuman yun. Yun ang nagiging problema doon<\/em>\u00a0(That won\u2019t stand a chance in court. That\u2019s the problem there),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo also scored some senators he did not name for making comments against Albayalde as if already assuming he was guilty of the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPag nagi-imbestiga ka, wag ka muna magsalita na<\/em>\u00a0guilty ito o ang ebidensiya lumakas. Hayaan mo na sanang matapos tsaka ka gumawa ng rekomendasyon<\/em>\u00a0otherwise\u00a0eh may problema ka talaga<\/em>\u00a0(When you conduct a Senate investigation, don\u2019t say that a person is guilty or evidence is getting stronger. Allow the proceedings to end before you make recommendations otherwise you have a problem),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cParang unfair naman yun sa inaakusahan mo<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s unfair to the accused). Sometimes you cannot also stop someone to express his disgust or disappointment but you know, we have to restrain ourselves especially if you are a lawyer,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Albayalde made a \u201cvalid\u201d point by questioning why charges have yet to be filed against him if there is sufficient evidence to implicate him in the illegal drug trade.<\/p>\n

He said only strong evidence may be used to file a complaint against Albayalde.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng pag-file ng kaso ay kailangang batay sa ebidensiya. Kung wala kang ebidensiya at haka haka lang, papaano ka magpa-<\/em>file (Filing charges must be based on evidence. If you have no evidence and it\u2019s all speculation, how can you file charges)?\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He clarified that he was simply giving his observation and not lawyering for Albayalde.<\/p>\n

Trial and error<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo denied that President Rodrigo Duterte was engaging in \u201ctrial and error\u201d by reappointing government officials to different departments after they were dismissed.<\/p>\n

This, after Senator Francis Pangilinan lamented that Albayalde may not be charged and may be even reappointed just like former Cabinet officials who have been fired or resigned.<\/p>\n

Panelo did not give a direct answer as to whether there was a possibility that the President would reappoint Albayalde. Instead, he said that only government officials without a whiff of corruption could be given possible reappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSi President pag naglipat ng isang opisyal na tinanggal sa posisyon, hindi dahil sa korupsyon. Dahil kung korupsyon yun, di na makakabalik yun<\/em>\u00a0(The President, when he reappoints an official removed from post, it won\u2019t be because of corruption. Because if it\u2019s corruption, that official will never have the chance to be reappointed),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng pagkakaalam ko kaya yan tinaggal dahil more on hindi ka bagay yan sa posiyon na yun<\/em>\u00a0(What I know is, the reason why they were removed is more on because their current position is not fit for them),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Albayalde stepped down as PNP chief amid allegations he protected his subordinates for recycling illegal drugs in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA –– Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Monday described the testimonies of two former police generals against resigned Philippine National …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":220626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234595,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234590\/revisions\/234595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}