Albayalde taps top lawyer

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde is tapping the services of one of the country’s most prominent and expensive lawyers, Estelito Mendoza, for the possible filing of charges against his former colleagues in the PNP.

Albayalde said Mendoza, who served as solicitor general under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was his provincemate from Pampanga. Mendoza represented Sen. Bong Revilla in his plunder case that led to an acquittal, with a still unclear ruling on whether Revilla must return over P100 million in public funds.

The embattled PNP chief sought Mendoza’s assistance for the filing of charges against “ex-generals who gave false and baseless testimony” against him. He is currently embroiled in the ninja cops issue and is facing investigation from the Senate and Department of the Interior and Local Government over a 2013 anti-illegal drug operation.

Albayalde said he might charge Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and retired police general Rudy Lacadin, who both linked him to the questioned anti-illegal drug operation that led to his relief when he was still Pampanga’s provincial police director.

“These people have to be made responsible for their actions. They should know better than make false accusations… Someone here is lying and it is definitely not me,” he said partly in Filipino.

Lacadin claimed that Albayalde remarked during a phone conversation that he might have received a share of the money from an operation where 13 police officers allegedly “recycled” 160 kilos of shabu worth P650 million. 

Magalong, a former chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, accused Albayalde of protecting these officers implicated in the raid and intervened to change their dismissal order to demotion. 

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said it is well within Albayalde’s rights to sue his accusers but warned that such a move could backfire.

“He is within his rights to defend himself if he believes he has a case against those who testified in the Senate hearing. It may be a double-edged sword though, since those retired generals will not take it sitting down and will defend themselves vigorously,” the senator said. – With Paolo Romero