(Eagle News)–Now-Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde at one time called Aaron Aquino, then the police director of Region 3, to ask that the case filed against the policemen who conducted the Pampanga raid in 2013 be reviewed.
This was the revelation of Aquino, now the Philippine Drug Enforcement chief, during the joint Senate panel hearing on the Good Conduct Time Allowance law on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Aquino made the revelation after former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Benjamin Magalong urged him to “tell the truth.”
Magalong made the emotional statement after Aquino refused to answer senators’ questions about why he never implemented the dismissal order issued in November 2014 by then-regional director Raul Petrasanta against Rodney Baloyo and his team over the conduct of the raid in Woodridge Subdivision in Mexico.
Magalong had alleged Baloyo and his men were found to have colluded to allow the escape of a foreign drug suspect they arrested in the raid, Johnson Lee.
In his defense, Albayalde said he merely called about the status of the case when he was director of the National Capital Region Police Office because Baloyo and the others were his men when he served as provincial director of Pampanga.
Albayalde said relatives of those policemen had been approaching him to ask about the status of the case.
“Never at one time did I ask for any favor.Yes, I asked for only the status. Only the status. I could not possibly influence an upper class. Im just acting (regional director) of NCRPO,” Albayalde said.
