Amid the Senate hearings on the so-called “ninja cops” that continues on Thursday, Senator Richard Gordon revealed that he believes President Rodrigo Duterte will ask Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Oscar Albayalde to file an early retirement.

“I think he will be overtaken by events after this. Maybe the President will ask him to retire,” Gordon said in a statement. “I don’t have any special knowledge but it’s just my feeling. It has been done before.”

The senator stressed that the PNP chief – who is set to retire on 8 November – was, at the very least, slipshod in performing his duties and at the same time can be seen protecting his people in a very unjust manner.

“It will send a tremendous signal to the rank and file na ngayon a general officer, the highest no less, has been put under the focus of scrutiny and he has not passed it,” said Gordon.

Asked on what his recommendation on Albayalde would be, the senator reiterated that the former should own up to his mistakes.

Gordon also believes that Thursday’s Senate probe was able to prove the existence of ninja cops.

“I think we were able to prove the existence of ninja cops because they were really trying to hide it, hide their way out of it to the point that they switch suspects,” said Gordon, adding that the Senate Blue Ribbon and Justice committees will release its report on the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law, irregularities in the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), and the alleged agaw-bato or drug recycling next week.