(Eagle News)–Then-National Capital Region Police Office director Oscar Albayalde called Aaron Aquino, the then-police director of Region III, and asked him to not sign the dismissal order against the 13 policemen behind the allegedly anomalous raid in Pampanga in 2013.
Senator Richard Gordon said this was Aquino’s narration to him and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon before the Senate joint hearing on the Good Conduct Time Allowance law on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
“Yun nga kinausap siya ni Albayalde para ‘wag ilabas ‘yung decision,”Gordon said, referring to the dismissal order signed in 2014 by then-Region 3 police director Raul Petrasanta against then-Col. Rodney Baloyo and his team.
The dismissal order was signed, former Criminal Investigation Detection Chief Benjamin Magalong said, after a CIDG probe found Baloyo and his men presented to the media only 30 kilograms of the 200 kilograms they had seized in the raid in Woodridge, Mexico, and presented a person different from the foreign drug suspect they had arrested during the raid.
The dismissal order, however, in the end, was never implemented and Baloyo and his team were only demoted.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Aquino at first did not disclose why he did not implement Petrasanta’s order when he was the Region 3 police director, but upon prodding by Magalong for him to “tell the truth,” Aquino admitted Albayalde called him up but only to ask for the status of the case.
Albayalde, who was present during the hearing, admitted he called Aquino but denied he ever influenced him into doing anything.
He said he asked for the status only because the family members of the policemen in question were asking him about the same.
“Nung kausap ko siya kahapon sabi niya na nalito ako. Kaya pati si Magalong very disappointed siya,” Gordon said.
For Gordon, Albayalde was also not answering the allegations against him directly.
“Ilang taon na yan. PNP chief na siya. Dapat nilinis na niya yan,” Gordon said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he would refrain from taking action on the claims against Albayalde and the 13 policemen pending the results of the joint Senate panel probe.