The Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearings on the loopholes of the Good Conduct Time Allowance GCTA law has taken an odd turn after Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee invited former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group CIDG Director General now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to shed light on drug smuggling inside the National Bilibid Prisons.
The reason why the illegal drug trade persists despite the present administration’s war on drugs is because rogue policemen are into the illegal activity, not just individually but by working together in selling confiscated illegal drugs, according to Mayor Magalong.
The anatomy of the illegal enterprise ran by ninja cops was illustrated by an anti-drug operations that happened in Mexico, Pampanga in November 29, 2013 per Mayor Magalong’s testimony. The story was so gripping that I thought the incident was straight out of the movies about Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord and founder of the Medellin cartel.
In 2013, the Pampanga Provincial Police office was led by General Oscar Albayalde. The intelligence section under him had mounted an anti-drugs operation against a Chinese drug lord but surprisingly did not inform Albayalde. The chief of the intel section, Col. Rodney Baloyo mobilized 13 of his men to subdue the drug lord named Johnson Lee in Lakeshore Subdivision, Mexico, Pampanga. The anti-drugs operation netted 36 kilos of shabu but Johnson Lee got away. Instead, the team traveled all the way to Clark to collar another drug suspect.
The incident created plenty of buzz in the PNP because all protocol in anti drug operations was practically set aside. In 2016 word that members of the raiding team including Albayalde bought SUVs finally reached the ears of then PNP Chief Allan Purisima. Purisima summoned CIDG Director General Benjamin Magalong to investigate the anti-drug raid, the results of which yielded another story different from Col. Baloyo’s report.
The raiding team confiscated more than 200 kilos of shabu with a street value of more than P640 million and plenty of cash. Instead of Johnson Lee, the team collared another suspect Ding Wenkun.
Whether General Albayalde was intentionally left out of the operations was not clear so Senator Panfilo Lacson needed to ask the question six years later.
“Why did you not inform your immediate boss, General Albayalde about the anti-drug operation?” As Baloyo groped for answers, Sen. Lacson followed it up with another question: You did not inform Albayalde, why? Because you thought he had links with the suspected drug lord?
The incident in the ebbing days of November 2013 continues to hound General Oscar Albayalde. It did not only lead to his relief from the Pampanga police office but as recent events indicate it can even cost him his job, his retirement and clutch his name forever to the venality of the Ninja cops.
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October is Co-op Month and this year there’s more reason to celebrate because the Cooperative Development Authority CDA, the regulatory body which has jurisdiction over more than 25,000 coops nationwide has a new Charter.
I’m referring to RA 11364 otherwise known as the Coooperative Development Authority Act of 2019 which President Duterte signed into law in August 08, 2019.
Going over the provisions and sections of the new Charter is not easy for a pedestrian so I asked Atty. Jonathan Capanas, Dean of the College of Law of the University of San Jose Recoletos to sit down with us over “Co-op TV” and help industry stakeholders understand the impact of the new CDA Charter on the industry.
Atty. Capanas who is executive director of the Cooperative and Resources Management Center is upbeat about the “empowered and strengthened” CDA.
Under the new Charter, the Board of Directors BOD replaces the Board of Administrators. The BOD will not exercise executive and administrative functions but focus solely on policy making. In the old charter, the BOA exercised admin powers and saw to the day to day operations through the executive director and staff but under RA 11364, this particular function is the responsibility of the Administrator who is appointed by the President.
The composition of the BOD is made up of representatives of 6 cooperative clusters: 1) credit and financial services, banking and insurance; 2) consumers, marketing, producers and logistics; 3) human services: health, housing, workers and labor service; 4) education and advocacy; 5) agriculture, agrarian, aquaculture, farmers, dairy and fisherfolk; 6) public utilities: electricity, water, communications and transport. All members of the board including the chairman are all appointed by the Chief Executive.
The question is, because the top level structure of the agency will be packed with presidential appointees, how much politics can the agency take without prejudice to its effectivity and efficiency?
Atty. Capanas said politics will always be a factor because the President is the appointing power. However, the mechanisms for wider consultations through the 6 clusters and the participation of sectoral apex bodies can temper the political reality. He urged stakeholders to be vigilant and keep track of the crafting of the implementing rules and regulations IRR of the new charter to insure that their voices are heard.
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