(Eagle News) — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde sought the legal advice of noted lawyer Estelito Mendoza on Friday, October 11, amid the controversy he is facing on the “ninja cops” issue.
In a photo from the Office of the Chief PNP, Albayalde is seen seated beside Mendoza.
“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.
Albayalde is set to retire on November 8 when he turns 56.
He has been under fire since his name was dragged into the controversial raid of a house in Mexico, Pampanga where allegedly 200 kilos of shabu had been seized by Mexico town policemen led by Major Rodney Baloyo IV. The policemen, however, only declared that they had seized more than 30 kilos.
Albayalde had asked then PNP Regional Director General Aaron Aquino not to implement a dismissal order against Baloyo and 12 other Mexico policemen who conducted the questionable raid.
In a more recent Senate hearing, former PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) deputy director retired general Rudy Lacadin testified that Albayalde had told him that he had received something, although a “little only” from the said raid.
The retired PNP official admitted that he and Albayalde were friends and business partners then.
“During the time of the investigation I am conducting, he (Albayalde) called me up, actually, and ang usapan, ang naalala ko (the conversation as I remember) is that, ‘Sir, naimbestigahan niyo raw kami (Sir, I heard you are investigating us),” Lacadin told the Senate panel.
“‘If you have nothing to hide, wala naman kayong dapat katakutan (you have nothing to fear)’,” he recalled telling Albayalde then.
“And sabi niya (And he said) — I don’t know if he’s joking – ‘Actually, Sir, kaunti lang naman ang napunta sa akin diyan (Actually, Sir, I only got a little from that),” Lacadin told the Senate hearing as to how his conversation with Albayalde went.
The PNP chief had denied that he had said that to Lacadin.
He said he was thinking of filing a suit against both Lacadin and Baguio City mayor Benjamin Magalong who was the CIDG chief then when he ordered the investigation of the 2013 Pampanga drug raid.
Magalong had implicated Albayalde in the ninja cops issue during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the issue.