Magalong says Albayalde among those who got SUVs after controversial 2013 Pampanga raid; PNP chief denies it

(Eagle News)–Now-Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde was among those who got a sport utility vehicle after the questioned 2013 drug raid in Pampanga, former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Benjamin Magalong said.

Magalong told a joint Senate panel hearing the Good Conduct Time Allowance law on Tuesday, Oct. 1, that this was according to then-PNP Chief Alan Purisima, who as a result ordered Magalong to probe the  raid in Mexico.

Magalong said the results of a Criminal Investigation and Detection Group probe found the team of then-Col. Rodney Baloyo, who conducted the raid in Woodridge Subdivision, presented to the media  only 30 kilograms of the around 200 kilograms they had seized from the raid.

The results, Magalong said, also showed Baloyo’s team arrested one Johnson Lee during the raid, but a different person was  presented as having been arrested to the media.

“Actually nabanggit niya (Purisima) pati ‘yang provincial director nila meron din siya,” Magalong said, referring to Albayalde.

But Albayalde, who was also present in the hearing, denied Magalong’s accusations.

He said what he had in 2013 was “a pick-up truck.”

“..Model, I don’t know, an old model one, and I can even say that I bought that from a neighbor,” he said.

“I really don’t know what personal gripes Mayor Magalong here has against me because this happened in 2013,” Albayalde added.

The allegations against Albayalde came with only a month and a half left before his retirement as PNP chief.

But Magalong, now Baguio city mayor, denied he had any motive, noting that the issue on the illegal drugs recycling of unscrupulous policemen came about in a “spontaneous” manner during a previous Senate hearing on the GCTA law.

Magalong said he merely answered Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon when the senator asked him if the illegal drugs recycling among policemen was a practice.