In picking Albayalde, Duterte dismays Davao cops

Oscar Albayalde —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

He has no connections to anyone in President Rodrigo Duterte’s power base and hometown, but Oscar Albayalde ought to thank Davao City cops for his appointment as the next chief of the Philippine National Police.

They all didn’t want him, according to the President.

On Thursday, the President said his decision to appoint Albayalde, who was practically a stranger to him unlike the man’s predecessor, Ronald dela Rosa, was prompted by the resistance of the Davao City police to the idea of Albayalde as PNP chief.

Albayalde is the head of the National Capital Region Police Office, which has been central to the implementation of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs that, critics say, mostly targets the urban poor communities of Metro Manila.

Never having been assigned to Davao, Albayalde — who hails from San Fernando, Pampanga — admitted he was surprised by the President’s decision.

No particular choice

The President, addressing his allies at a dinner party on Thursday at Sofitel, said he initially didn’t have anyone in mind for the job.

“I never had any particular choice. But when I asked the people of Davao, the police, I said, ‘Who do you want [for PNP chief]?’” the President recalled.

“So there was a narration of names and of the characters and all. When I told them, ‘How about this Albayalde?’ All those idiots said, ‘Oh, not him, sir, he’s too…’ I said, ‘What?’ ‘Strict, sir, he is too strict,’” he said in Filipino.

That sealed it, according to the President.

“I called Bong [Go], ‘It’s Albayalde,’” he said.

Go is the special presidential assistant and his longtime aide.

Malacañang announced the appointment of Albayalde on Thursday.

The President said he often picked people for important posts based on negative perceptions resulting from their strictness or toughness.

He said the same was true when he picked former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Eduardo Año to head the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

“I said, ‘Who do you consider the son of a bitch? ‘The one who will make your life hard’ ‘Sir, it’s Año.’ ‘Oh, si Año.’ ‘Bong, si Año.’ Who else?’” the President said.

“So it will be the rule of the thumb. Who is the most unkind, the one you will say ‘Oh, not that son of a bitch…’ What I want is what you need. That’s what you deserve,” he said.

‘Good choices’

She may not like Albayalde’s boss, but detained Sen. Leila de Lima heaped praises on the President’s choices for the next chiefs of the police, justice department and the military.

De Lima described as “good choices” Albayalde, newly appointed Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and incoming Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez.

“They are all men of honor, competence and integrity,” the senator said in a letter sent to the media on Saturday from her detention room at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

“Much as I doubt the sincerity of the reasons why President Duterte let go of (Justice) Secretary (Vitaliano) Aguirre, the new appointments made by him are as good as they can get under this administration,” she said before taking a dig at her archnemesis.

“Hopefully, despite the President, Guevarra can bring back true dispensation of justice at the [Department of Justice], bereft of any partisan and persecutorial agenda; that Albayalde can return respect for human rights and genuine police work at the PNP; and that Galvez can once more assert the defense of Philippine territories in the West Philippine Sea against China and effectively pursue the peace agenda in our internal security concerns,” De Lima said.

Loyalty to the Constitution

She reminded Albayalde, Guevarra and Galvez that “their loyalty lies first with the Constitution and the Republic, and second only with the President who appointed them.”

“You will be remembered for not how you serve this President, but for how well you serve your country, and your people in spite of him,” the senator said.

The neophyte lawmaker has been detained since Feb. 24, 2017 on illegal drug trading charges.

The justice department accused her of allowing convicted drug lords in New Bilibid Prison to continue their illegal operations when she was justice secretary during the Aquino administration. —With a report from Dona Z. Pazzibugan