Bato says Senate panel clears ex-PNP chief Azurin in shabu cover-up mess

FILE PHOTO: Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., former PNP chief. (Photo from the Facebook page of the Office of the Chief PNP)

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Ronald dela Rosa said Tuesday that former Philippine National Police chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. is off the hook in the chamber’s investigation into the alleged cover-up of the P6.7 billion shabu haul involving high-ranking PNP officers.

Dela Rosa has terminated the Senate Committee on public order and dangerous drugs’ investigation into the massive controversy on the purported involvement of the police force in the illegal drug trade.

Asked who among the PNP officials linked to the mess are cleared from the panel’s probe, dela Rosa said: “I can safely say PNP chief [Azurin].”

According to the testimony of sacked PNP Drug Enforcement Group head Brigadier General Narciso Domingo in the hearing, Azurin told him to file a case against former Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr.

In October last year, anti-drug operatives found 990 kilos of shabu in Mayo’s possession.

Domingo said Azurin green-lighted the conduct of a follow-up police operation following Mayo’s arrest to pin down the bigger fish in the drug operations.

But, he said, the former PNP head later called to cancel this and told him to secure Mayo instead – in case the beleaguered police officer’s then-boss, Lieutenant Colonel Arnulfo Ibañez, would “clean up the mess and kill Mayo.”

No other cop is completely off the hook

Dela Rosa said he is still apprehensive about letting off the hook other PNP officers tagged in the shabu mess.

The senator is half-hearted about clearing Domingo in the attempted cover-up.

While Domingo had admitted to procedural lapses in their police operations, he said, “such judgment calls and procedural lapses were done by [him] in good faith.”

Based on marathon hearings of the Senate in its investigation, dela Rosa said he thinks Colonel Julian Olonan, former head of the PDEG Special Operations Unit in Calabarzon, is “most likely” involved in the bid to cover up the arrest of Mayo and the seizure of the multi-billion worth of shabu.

READ: Senate confirms cover-up in P6.7-billion ‘shabu’ haul

As for PDEG Intelligence and Foreign Liaison Division chief Colonel Rolando Portero, dela Rosa said he cannot yet say for certain that he is involved in the supposed cover-up.

According to Domingo, it was Portero who had told him that some PDEG operatives took two suitcases with around 42 kilos of pilfered shabu from the narcotics seized during Mayo’s arrest.

Cops in hot water

Aside from Mayo, dela Rosa said Ibañez and Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Gonzales of the Quezon City Police District still has “a lot explaining to do” since the panel’s investigation was mostly centered around them.

In Domingo’s chronological narration of the controversy, he said Gonzales and Ibañez had gone their “separate ways” after the latter refused to turn over his Chinese informant to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Ibañez is still detained in the Senate after the chamber issued a contempt order against him.

READ: Senators hold Mayo, boss in contempt over P6.7 billion shabu ‘cover-up’

Also still held in contempt at the Senate are Senior Master Sergeants Lorenzo Catarata and Jerrywin Rebosora.

Catarata allegedly loaded the pilfered shabu in his personal vehicle.

Senators decided to detain him and Rebosora after they denied being caught on a CCTV footage carrying the looted shabu, which were later declared “missing.”

READ: Senate panel holds 2 police officers in contempt for lying about drug involvement

JPV