13 cops behind 2013 Pampanga raid placed on floating status

Rodney Baloyo (with right arm over chair), then a colonel, has denied arresting one Johnson Lee in a Pampanga raid his team conducted in 2013./Meanne Corvera/Eagle News/

(Eagle News)–The 13 policemen behind the controversial 2013 Pampanga raid have been placed on floating status.

Philippine National Police spokesperson Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac said those with no assignment were:

-P/Supt. Rodney Raymundo Louie Baloyo

– P/SInsp. Joven De Guzman Jr.

– SPO1 Jules Lacap Maniago

– SPO1 Donald Castro Roque

– SPO1 Ronald Bayas Santos

– SPO1 Rommel Munoz Vital

– SPO1 Alcindor Mangiduyos Tinio

– SPO1 Dante Mercado Dizon

– SPO1 Eligio Dayos Valeroso

– PO3 Dindo Singian Dizon

– PO3 Gilbert Angeles de Vera

– PO3 Romeo Encarnacion Guerrero

– PO2 Anthony Loleng Lacsamana

Banac said the final decision on these policemen will depend on the results of a Department of Justice probe.

Former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Chief Benjamin Magalong has said the results of a CIDG probe found the men led by then-Col. Baloyo presented to the media only 30 kilograms of the 200 kilograms of shabu they seized from the raid in a house in Woodridge Subdivision in Mexico.

The probe also found, Magalong said, that the policemen presented as the arrested suspect to the media a man different from the drug suspect they actually arrested from the raid, one Johnson Lee.

In 2014, General Raul Petrasanta, Central Luzon police director, dismissed the policemen over the controversial raid.

The dismissal order was, however, not implemented and the policemen were merely demoted.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Aaron Aquino, who became Central Luzon police director after Petrasanta, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 1, that PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde, then the National Capital Region Police Office chief, called him in 2016 to ask him about the status of the case against the 13 policemen.

But Magalong and Senator Richard Gordon, who had spoken to Aquino before the hearing, said Aquino told them Albayalde told him outright not to implement the dismissal order.

Magalong added Albayalde was also among those who got a sport utility vehicle shortly after the raid.

Albayalde denial

But Albayalde said that while he called Aquino, he never influenced him into doing anything, adding the call was merely  upon the request of the families of the policemen, who were his men when he was Pampanga provincial director.

He denied getting an SUV after the raid, saying in 2013, his vehicle was merely a “pick-up.”

President Rodrigo Duterte has deferred action on the claims against Albayalde and the 13 policemen pending the results of a separate Senate probe.