By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/PNA
MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) started its investigation on the Bacolod City police chief and four other cops who were ordered relieved by President Rodrigo R. Duterte for their alleged involvement in illegal drugs.
“Ang utos sa atin ng Presidente (The President said), let them face the investigation. They will face investigation. They were sacked of course, na-relieve sila sa kanilang pwesto (they were relieved from their posts). After that, they will be facing an investigation,” PNP chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde told reporters in an ambush interview after the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) forum Thursday.
Albayalde said the order from the President came after his meeting with the five police officials in Malacañang on Tuesday.
The five officials denied the allegations being hurled against them.
“Of course, they deny it. That is the reason why the President said that we should conduct a full-blown investigation here and if they will be found guilty, they will be discharged from the service,” Albayalde said.
The country’s top cop, however, clarified that the relief of Senior Supt. Francis Ebreo and four other police officers did not mean that they are already guilty.
The four others are Supt. Allan Macapagal, deputy city director for operation; Supt. Ritchie Yatar, chief of City Mobile Force Company; Supt. Nassrudin Tayuan, former team leader of the City Drug Enforcement Unit; and Senior Insp. Victor Paulino, former chief of Police Station 3, who was re-assigned to the City Mobile Force Company last month.
He said the policemen would be given due process and clarified that their relief is pending the result of an investigation that is administrative in nature.
Duterte has castigated relieved Bacolod police chief Ebreo and four other cops over their alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo confirmed that the President met Ebreo and the four other police officers and expressed frustration over their failure to determine drug personalities in Bacolod City.
“PRRD gave the police officers a dressing down and castigated them for allowing the proliferation of illegal drugs to persist in Bacolod,” Panelo said in a statement.
“The President particularly expressed his frustration as to why they had no knowledge about the presence of certain personalities in Bacolod who are involved in the illegal drug industry,” he added.
He reiterated that the President’s move to fire the Bacolod cops should serve as a warning to other cops that Duterte will not tolerate law enforcement officials involved in the drug trade.
“This swift action of the President is a timely warning to other PNP officers that the President will not tolerate incompetence and inefficiency in the police force, especially with respect to the Administration’s crusade versus illegal drugs,” Panelo said.
In a media interview in Malacañang on Wednesday, Duterte said Ebreo is a protector of illegal drug trade in Bacolod.
“Well, it seems to me that at the very least he’s a protector cop. He might not be into the trafficking business but he was really a protector,” Duterte said.
“I can’t believe that with all the information available to every chief of police or city police director for that matter assigned in the province that they would not review the record of the province in terms of criminality and drug trafficking. Tingin ko pinag-aralan (I think it was well-studied),” he added.
Duterte also mentioned Bacolod City Councilor Ricardo “Cano” Tan who has been tagged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) “almost a decade ago to be engaged in trafficking”.
