MANILA – A Senate panel recommended that former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde and 13 other policemen should be charged for violating the provisions of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and for their alleged involvement in the reselling of confiscated illegal drugs.
Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chair Sen. Richard Gordon on Friday said Albayalde – former head of the Pampanga police when the questionable operation took place – and other policemen are “guilty of malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance.”
Malfeasance is committing an act that one had no legal right to perform. Misfeasance is the failure to exercise due care and diligence in the performance of an official duty. Nonfeasance is the refusal to perform an act which an officer is obliged to perform.
“You have all the circumstantial connection, pinabayaan ‘yung kaso. At the very least liable siya doon, dereliction of duty,” Gordon said.
“If you ask me as a lawyer and not as a blue ribbon chair, it would warrant drug charges against Albayalde,” he added.
Albayalde was the chief of Pampanga police when 13 police officers allegedly let suspected drug lord Johnson Lee flee in exchange for P50 million while most of the 200 kilos of shabu confiscated during the operation were not declared and presumed to have been sold back to the drug market.
Albayalde denied allegations that he was involved with the operation and that he intervened in the implementation of a dismissal order on the 13 police officers involved./PN
