BATO
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday challenged Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to name the mayor’s so-called “trusted aide” that took drug money.
Osmeña, breaking over a week of silence on the issue, said he did not know of any police colonel who could be considered as his “trusted” aide that the PNP chief claimed had received P200,000 a week in protection money from big-time drug lord Franz Sabalones.
“I don’t know any trusted colonel. I want them to say the name because he (Dela Rosa) said he assigned them in ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao). He should know who the guys is,” said Osmeña in a press conference at his office yesterday.
It was the first time that the mayor spoke of the allegation since Dela Rosa, interviewed over Bombo Radyo Cebu’s Bombohanay Bigtime program on Aug. 12, revealed that the police colonel who allegedly received a payola of P200,000 per week from Sabalones is a “sinaligan” (trusted aide) of Osmeña. Osmeña, who was in the United States at that time for a medical check up, returned to Cebu on Aug. 14.
Dela Rosa, during the interview, said the concerned police officer was transferred to ARMM and it was the reason why the mayor was mad at the Philippine National Police.
Dela Rosa, however, remained tight-lipped on the identity of the police colonel.
But Osmeña said that if the PNP chief could not name names, Cebuanos might think that Dela Rosa was just engaging in character assassination.
The mayor said Dela Rosa was being unfair to him for no apparent reason he could think of.
Trust issues
According to Osmeña, Dela Rosa could not speak of a “trusted aide” carelessly since he (Osmeña) is one person who could not give his trust easily to anyone, especially when it involved money or power. More so, he said, if someone would offer money that came from drugs.
Osmeña also pointed out that Sabalones, by all accounts, did not operate in Cebu City.
As far the police officers who had been with him in the anti-drug campaign and have since been transferred to other posts in Mindanao, Osmeña maintained they did a far better job that their counterparts in other cities in the country.
“So I challenged them to see any city that did a better job. Unfair kaayo na. I have to tell that to the Cebuanos. Is it fair? I’m just trying to protect my own people. Unsa ilahang sala (What was their fault)?” he said.
Osmeña believed that he lost his authority and control over the city police because of the false charges that he has a trusted police officer that was protecting a drug lord.
Not true
Osmeña said Dela Rosa’s claim that he was angry with the police over the relief of his so-called “trusted aide” was a lie.
Osmeña reiterated that he did ask Dela Rosa to allow certain police officers to remain in their posts in Cebu for 90 days so they could complete the anti-drug campaign they had started with him. He said Dela Rosa agreed but later reneged on that agreement.
“You know we work very hard on this. I report this in my Facebook (page) every day. We were neutralizing drug lords,” he said. “And then now they are being transferred because they are protecting drug lords? That’s not fair. How would you feel? I’m just trying to protect our own people,” he added.
When sought for comment, Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), only said it would be up to Dela Rosa to identify the police colonel who is purportedly receiving a monthly payola from Sabalones.
“I leave it to the chief PNP. Baka hindi di pa tapos ang investigation sa taas. (Maybe the investigation conducted by our superiors is not yet over),” said Taliño in a text message to Cebu Daily News.
“I’m not privy to the investigation being conducted by the IAS and CIDG. (Internal Affairs Service and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group),” he added.
Taliño, who was attending an event in Manila yesterday, did not elaborate.
He earlier said he has his own drugs list that involved policemen who were allegedly into drugs. However, Taliño said the list was still being validated.
Sabalones, a native of San Fernando town in southern Cebu, ratted on his protectors after he surrendered to Dela Rosa last Aug. 8.
Sabalones was the number two drug personality in Central Visayas, next to Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz who was slain by Cebu-based policemen in Las Piñas City last June 17. He admitted to assuming control of Cebu’s drug trade after Jaguar’s death.
Dela Rosa said Salabones confessed that he had been giving a “weekly payola” of P200,000 to a police colonel and other policemen in Cebu. Dela Rosa did not name the police colonel except that he was transferred to ARRM.
Background
AT least five police colonels, on Dela Rosa’s order, were relieved and transferred out of Cebu last July 15. They were Superintendents Rex Derilo, George Ylanan, Marvin Sanchez, Teofilo Siclot, and Rodolfo Albotra. Camp Crame did not explain the reason for the relief.
Derilo was the long-time of chief of PRO-7’s Regional Intelligence Division and had headed the Regional Logistics Division for a week before he was reassigned to the Zamboanga Peninsula Police Office.
He and Ylanan led the team that killed Jaguar in Las Piñas City last June 17.
Ylanan, then chief of the Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) and deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office, was sent to northern Mindanao.
Sanchez, chief of the Firearms Explosives Security Service Agency and Guards Supervisory Section (Fessags-7), was sent to Cordillera Region. Albotra, head of the Provincial Intelligence Branch, was sent to the Caraga Administrative Region in Mindanao, while Siclot, of the Regional Headquarters Support Group, was transferred to Cagayan Valley Region.
Taliño also ordered the mass relief of all 67 operatives of RSOG and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (RAIDSOTF) even if they were responsible for getting Diaz and another big-time drug lord in Central Visayas, Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria, who was killed on Banacol Island in Getafe, Bohol last May 28.
Both the RSOG and RAIDSOTF heads and operatives faced accusations of a rubout in the killing of big-time drug personalities.
Doubts were also raised on the timing of their operations, which were done barely a month before President Duterte assumed his post, and after Diaz granted a media interview and expressed his intent to identify those involved in the illegal drugs trade.