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Senate President Sotto says ‘agaw-bato’

hearing a grand cover up
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Updated October 1, 2019, 8:38 PM

By Mario Casayuran

Senators led by Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said on Tuesday the Upper House witnessed
a grand cover-up of a 2013 Mexico, Pampanga police drug raid that involved a missing 162-kilo
‘’shabu’’ (crystal meth) drug cache worth P648 million.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III
(CZAR DANCEL / MANILA BULLETIN)

Police raiders had a hard time explaining the alleged missing seized drugs and P50 million cash
allegedly given by a Korean drug lord for his freedom.

Police authorities had estimated that there were actually 200 kilos of shabu during the drug raid
but only 38 kilos were turned over.

The game-changer of the case would be the recovery of the drug lord, Johnson Lee, and Lee’s
vehicles that were seized but are now missing, according to Senator Richard J. Gordon, chairman
of the Senate Blue Ribbon and justice committees, who undertook a public hearing that lasted for
five hours and 30 minutes.

The raid took place during the time the current Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar
Albayalde was the acting PNP Pampanga provincial director.

What raised eyebrows among senators was that Albayalde, then the PNP national capital region
chief, called his successor, Aaron Aquino, then the PNP Pampanga provincial director, to ask
about the dismissal order against his men who raided the house of Johnson Lee.
When Albayalde told Aquino that he was calling because the 12 were his men, Gordon said this is
a Philippine culture of asking favors.

After the raid, the street price of shabu (crystal meth) in the Pampanga area went down and that
several policemen had new SUVs.

‘’They sold it,” Gordon told Senate reporters after the hearing, referring to the balance of the 200
kilos of meth supposedly seized given that only 38 kilos were turned over.

Former PNP criminal investigation detection group (CIDG) Director and now Baguio City Mayor
Benjamin Magalong said that Albayalde also had a new SUV.

Albayalde immediately denied this, claiming that he drives an old pickup truck.

This ‘’mock’’ raid was investigated by then PNP Chief Alan Purisima.

The 12 policemen were later ordered dismissed.

The 12 raiders led by Police Superintendent Rodney Raymundo Louie Baloyo were not
dismissed but were merely demoted after several years of inaction by two PNP region 3
directors.

‘’Baloyo is a washout, he just hanged himself. A disaster, he just perjured himself,’’ Gordon told
Senate reporters.

The Land Transportation Office (LTP) confirmed that one of Lee’s vehicles, a 2013 model Toyota
Fortuner, was sold three times in one day to hide the identity of the real owner.

A buyer, Amy Gopez, testified that she bought the car for P1.2 million from a car sales shop in
2015.

‘’If we get Lee and Ding Win Kun, we have a case,’’ Gordon said.

Johnson Lee was arrested briefly by some 12 Police Pampanga provincial operatives but the
raiders presented Ding Win Kun, a Chinese, to their superiors.

The case against Lee and Kun was thrown out by the courts because it was weak.

Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra is now reviewing the case.

The case was lost due to sheer incompetence as they mishandled the evidence and violated every
PNP rule.

Senators Panfilo M. Lacson and Ronald dela Rosa, both former PNP chiefs, appeared incredulous
at the events unfolding in Tuesday’s public hearing.

They saw how Gordon did not accept the testimony of Baloyo that he and his men could not do
anything when heavily-armed subdivision guards surrounded them before the raid.

Being policemen, they could have fought back but did not, neither did they file criminal charges
against two lightly-armed subdivision security guards, one of them a woman, Gordon said.
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