Drilon: Albayalde indictment a warning to ninja cops

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon issued a stern warning to the so-called ninja cops or members of the police involved in the recycling of seized illegal drugs: the law is catching up with you.

Drilon's warning was issued after the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde and 12 other police officers in relation to a 2013 anti-drug operation in Mexico, Pampanga.

"An indictment of a former top cop should send a clear signal to unscrupulous members of the police force involved in the recycling of seized illegal drugs: your days are numbered," Drilon said in a statement on Friday.

"You may not be caught today or tomorrow but, certainly, the law will catch up with you and send you behind bars," he stressed.

"The justice system may be slow but no one can escape from it," Drilon added.

Drilon commended the DOJ's action.

"I commend and fully support the decision of the Department of Justice to indict former Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde and the 12 ninja cops involved in the recycling of seized illegal drugs in relation to a 2013 anti-drug operation in Mexico, Pampanga.

"In the face of the evidence against Albayalde and his inability to provide evidence to the contrary, his indictment is the right thing to do. Any thing less than that would have been a mockery and a slap in the face of Philippine justice system," he said.

He added: "It is only when we stop the impunity that we can truly end this decades-old problem of recycling of illegal drugs perpetuated by these so-called ninja cops, the very same people in charge of this administration's bloody anti-illegal drug war that has killed over 5,000 Filipinos."