(Eagle News)–Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde on Wednesday, Oct. 2, said former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Chief Benjamin Magalong called him up once to ask him for a favor.
Albayalde made the remark in an interview over ANC, after Magalong accused him of calling up Aaron Aquino, then the region 3 police director, to ask him to review the cases filed against several of his men over a controversial drug raid in Pampanga in 2013.
Aquino confirmed the statement of Magalong, who said that based on the results of a CIDG probe, the policemen involved in the raid only presented 30 kilograms of the 200 kilograms of shabu they had seized, and presented a man different from the one they had actually arrested.
Magalong said then-PNP chief Alan Purisima had asked him to conduct the probe after supposedly receiving reports some Pampanga policemen had gotten sport utility vehicles shortly after the raid.
“There was one time, I was under him in a few months in the CIDG… also when he was the assistant director for operations… One time he called me for a little favor, during this time, he asked a favor from me,” Albayalde said, noting that Magalong was in floating status during this time.
Asked what favor this was, Albayalde did not disclose it and told the anchor to just ask Magalong directly.
“You can ask him that, of course, I obeyed, I was underclass, it was the call I favorably agreed on the call,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he would wait for the results of the Senate probe into the issue before acting on the claims against Albayalde and the-then Pampanga policemen who are still in active service.