PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said Monday he was stepping down from his position a month before his scheduled retirement next month. Albayalde is currently facing accusations related to shabu recycling among the so-called “ninja cops.”
The general said he would retire on November 8, which is also his 56th birthday and mandatory retirement age for PNP. He also said last week that he was forming a legal team that would go after his accusers.
Albayalde was the Pampanga police head who seized 38 kilos of shabu during a drug raid in Pampang in 2013 together with the 13 alleged “ninja cops.” But it turns out that about 200 kilos of shabu were confiscated and not 38.
Read: 13 ‘ninja cops’ involved in illegal drug recycling named
Former PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detention Group chief Benjamin Magalong accused Albayalde of deferring the dismissal order against the 13 “ninja cops.”
Rudy Lacadin, another retired police officer, also claimed Albayalde called him to ask about the “ninja cops'” case. Lacadin also said the general admitted that “only a little” amount of the drug loot went to him.
Albayalde denied all of Mangalong and Lacadin’s accusations saying, “it seems that everybody is ganging up on me” and that “it’s as if I’m being crucified already.”
He explained that the dismissal order against the 13 “ninja cops” was reduced to demotion in 2016 after they filed a motion for reconsideration.
Albayalde replaced the now senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa as PNP chief in 2018.