Retired police general and now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong is one of the members of the Committee of Five which was created to conduct a thorough evaluation and assessment on over 950 full colonels and generals of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who are expected to submit courtesy resignations amid the renewed drive to purge the organization of narco-cops.
This was disclosed by Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin ‘Benhur’ Abalos Jr. as he emphasized the integrity and fairness of the Committee of Five.
"The Committee of Five that will handle this is very credible, one of them is the mayor of Baguio, General Benjie Magalong," said Abalos.
"In terms of integrity and credibility, he is very clean. He has an untarnished reputation," he added.
Magalong was the head of the Board of Inquiry that investigated the controversial Mamasapano operation in Maguindanao that left 44 members of the police elite's Special Action Force (SAF dead in 2015.
While the operation was successful in taking out the top bomb maker in Southeast Asia which is being coddled by local terrorist groups, it came with a high cost and became one of the issues that hounded the Aquino administration.
The result of the Magalong-led investigation reportedly did not sit well with the higher-ups and was deemed as the reason why he was excluded in the list of top PNP chief contenders.
Abalos said he asked permission from Magalong if he could announced his name--the purpose is to douse speculations in the PNP that the evaluation process would be tainted with politics.
He agreed.
Abalos stated the other members of the five-man committee are a mix of professionals, insisting that he cannot divulge their identities for security reasons.
On the case of the 10 PNP officials with alleged illegal drug links, Abalos stated that ‘these are extraordinary times, it calls for a radical move to extraordinary actions.’’
He admitted that there remains a challenge when prosecuting rogue cops even with the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) and Internal Affairs Service (PNP) of the PNP on hand.
“Alam mo naman yung ibang ano (drug-related issues) napakahaba ng kaso, may technicality etc. napakabigat niyan kung idadaan mo sa ganyan (normal process) yan kaya nga ito as an institution we address this (You all know the resolution t the case takes long, there is the technicality etc., it is very Herculean when done in the normal process that is why as an institution we address this),’’ he expounded.
Abalos assured that intelligence reports pointing to PNP officials with illegal drug links will still be intense assessment by the five-man committee reiterating that ‘kung wala naman talaga eh di pakita natin (if there is no unlawful links then let us make it public).’’
The DILG chief pointed out that there are measures already ready in case the 10 cops with alleged illegal drug involvement do not heed his appeal, stressing that investigations are on-going.
With the deadline at the end of Jan. set for the courtesy resignation submission, Abalos remains hopeful that the whole assessment process of the PNP colonels and generals will conclude in two to three months. (Chito A. Chavez)