Cop hero supports Aglipay in drug raps

One of the whistle-blowers in the bribery case of former Anonas police head Superintendent Francisco Ovilla and nine of his men vouched yesterday for the integrity of Director Edgar Aglipay, chief of the PNP-Directorate for Operations, who has been linked to illegal drugs.

PO3 Wilfredo Gonzales, of the Central Police District, gave a statement supporting Aglipay in view of the allegations hurled against him by Angelo Mawanay alias "Ador", an alleged former agent of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) and Ma. Esther Concon alias "Matet."

"I just want to share my sentiments because Gen. Aglipay was very helpful to me and my family when I came out to pursue the case against former Superintendent Ovilla and his men, who were involved in bribery and the coddling of drug lords," Gonzales said. "He even gave me security."

Gonzales and his colleague, SPO3 Reynato Ressurrecion, were instrumental in the detention and subsequent prosecution of Ovilla and nine other former members of the Anonas police station early this year.

Quezon City Judge Diosdado Peralta, of Branch 95, sentenced Ovilla and his men to death for the controversial bribery case last March 15.

"If not for the personal conviction and relentless support of Gen. Aglipay, the case could have been railroaded," he said.

Aglipay was then chief of the National Capital Regional Police Office when Gonzales and Ressurrecion spilled the beans against the former Anonas policemen, who accepted P650,000 in bribe money from drug lords, Randy Koo and Jimmy Tan sometime in August 1999.

Koo and Tan, well-entrenched in a big-time Taiwanese drug syndicate operating in the country, were arrested by Ovilla and his men but were released after the cops received part of the seized illegal drugs, the bribe money and two cars.

Aglipay recently challenged alleged PAOCTF agent "Ador" and police asset, Matet, to produce evidence and file charges in connection with their allegations that he was involved in drug-trafficking during the term of former PAOCTF chief and now Senator Panfilo Lacson. Concon, however, has retracted her statement. – Christina Mendez