House members on Wednesday scolded a ranking PNP official for his ill-timed announcement that 19 officers, including five police generals, were to face criminal and administrative raps in connection with the missing cache of AK-47 rifles that reportedly ended up with the New People’s Army.
Members of the House committee on public order and safety said Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Director Benjamin Magalong premature identification of senior police officials in the disappearance of more than a thousand high-powered AK-47 and Armalite rifles could have been an attempt to mislead the ongoing congressional investigation on the matter.
“There seems to be a deliberate attempt either to lead this committee towards the conclusions which Director Magalong’s own investigation wishes to impose upon us or to hide other facets of an incomplete truth,” Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia said.
Garcia said the purpose of the committee hearing appears to have been diminished by Magalong’s statements to the media because it appeared that the CIDG chief has conclusively found the senior police officials guilty of licensing the firearms.
“I find the situation rather mysterious, if not suspicious. I find it even unacceptable that this committee that is trying its best to get to the bottom of things to find the truth in a manner that is most objective, apolitical and totally without agenda, should be preempted by an investigation which up to now I cannot fathom whether it is ongoing, terminated or suddenly, inexplicably concluded,” she said.
Magalong told lawmakers during the first committee hearing on June 5 that the CIDG has yet to conclude its own probe.
A mistake
Magalong admitted during the Wednesday hearing that he acted rashly when he said the officials concerned were about to be charged before the Office of the Ombudsman.
“I take full responsibility for that mistake,” he said.
Committee chair Negros Occidental Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer told Magalong he was surprised at the CIDG director’s announcement to the media since he told lawmakers a different story when he appeared less than 24 hours earlier at the first House panel hearing.
“I was surprised because the news stated there is already a case against those generals. Tumawag sa akin yung mga media, sabi ko wala pa naman. [Pero] ‘yung pagkaintindi ng taumbayan meron nang kaso ‘yung mga generals at mga police officers natin,” Ferrer said.
Wrong legal strategy
ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Samuel Pagdilao (Party-list CIS) said Magalong should have exercised prudence in speaking to the media about the CIDG’s investigation since cases have yet to be filed against the police officials
The lawmaker, who once served as CIDG chief, said prematurely discussing details about an ongoing probe wasn’t only an unfair practice but a wrong legal strategy.
“Not only that you are being unfair to certain people but you also stand the risk of being embarrassed once you filed a case and it is not accepted by the fiscal or Ombudsman. That means you’re back to square one as far as your investigation is concerned,” Pagdilao said.
Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop has asked the House panel to invite Sindac to the next committee hearing to further shed light on the PNP’s ongoing probe on the issue. —NB, GMA News
