Albayalde: Marcos name not on drug watchlist

MANILA, Philippines — A former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said he had never seen the name of President Marcos in the drug watchlist of the Duterte administration, whose supporters recently released a supposed video recording of him using illegal drugs.

“I didn’t see his name,” former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said in an interview over ANC yesterday, referring to the drugs watchlist, which reportedly included names of government officials and other high-profile personalities.

The PNP and National Bureau of Investigation would later dismiss as fake the video clip supposedly showing Marcos using drugs.

Albayalde, the second national police chief in the Duterte administration, admitted he had not seen the drug watchlist in its entirety.

“The drug watchlist was too thick and I didn’t have a copy of that,” he said.

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV earlier said Albayalde and four other officials were named suspects by the International Criminal Court-Office of the Prosecutor (ICC-OTP) in its ongoing probe on thousands of extrajudicial killings and rights abuses in the conduct of Duterte’s war on drugs.

The four others are former PNP chief and incumbent Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, Northern Luzon police commander Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr., PNP Drug Enforcement Group head Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta and retired police Col. Edilberto Leonardo, now a commissioner of the National Police Commission.

Albayalde maintained he will not cooperate with the ICC’s investigation unless ordered by the Department of Justice.

“I will only allow myself only if the Department of Justice will tell us so and if there is an order,” he said.

While admitting that there had been cases of abuses in the Duterte administration’s war, Albayalde said they were immediately acted upon and the perpetrators punished.

He cited as example the arrest and prosecution of the policemen involved in the killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos during an anti-drug operation in Caloocan City in August 2017. Albayalde, who was then National Capital Region Police Office director, said he sacked over 1,000 erring police officers assigned in Caloocan.

On the ICC’s tagging him as suspect in extrajudicial killings, he stressed the international tribunal has no business interfering in the country’s internal affairs as the justice system in the Philippines is working.

Albayalde said the PNP never tried to justify the killings in Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.

“We are not trying to justify the killings. Never. The PNP is pro-life,” he said.