By Tara Yap
ILOILO CITY – Police General Oscar Albayalde slammed information linking the Philippine National Police (PNP) to an assassination plot against Iloilo 1st District Rep. Richard Garin and Mayor Oscar Garin of Guimbal as “fake news”.
Police General Oscar Albayalde talks after a command conference at Camp Delgado, the Western Visayas regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Iloilo City. Directly behind him is Police Brigadier General John Bulalacao, director of Police Regional Office-6. (Tara Yap/ MANILA BULLETIN0
Albyalde was reacting to rumors that there was an alleged order given to the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to kill the Garins for beating up a policeman last December 2018.
“Our CIDG won’t assassinate them or do any harm against them. There has been no retaliatory action coming from the police since after the incident,” Albayalde told Iloilo media Friday at Camp Delgado, PNP’s regional headquarters in this city.
The PNP chief also disclosed that both Rep. Garin and his father visited him at Camp Crame weeks after physically assaulting Police Corporal Federico Macaya Jr.
“They were apologetic and we accepted their sincere apology,” Albayalde pointed out.
Meanwhile, the Garins also condemned the fake news.
“This fake news never came from us. Anybody can make these fake messages and use our names while wrongly accuse the CIDG,” Rep. Garin told The Manila Bulletin.
Rep. Garin claimed the fake death threats were a “mindless strategy” of a retired police general who is running against his wife, former health secretary Janette Loreto-Garin, for the congressional seat he is vacating.