FORMER Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Central Visayas head Police Colonel Marlon Tayaba belied reports that his office cleared former Daanbantayan mayor Vicente Loot of involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Tayaba made the clarification after reports surfaced that Loot, who was accused by President Rodrigo Duterte of being a drug protector, attached a CIDG Central Visayas report in his request for an investigation from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Loot requested the NBI for another investigation after he was named anew as a drug protector by President Duterte in a speech in Luzon last July 8.

Tayaba said the CIDG under him did not clear Loot and he was surprised to learn that it was reported that his office had.

“We don’t have any decision clearing former mayor Vicente Loot, and I will never do that. It is not true that I cleared Loot,” Tayaba, who is now the provincial director of Iloilo, said in Tagalog.

Tayaba said he was disappointed that reports came out about him clearing Loot and that he wasn’t interviewed for his side of the story.

He said that when he was the CIDG Central Visayas chief, he worked diligently, and his office had many accomplishments under him.

Loot has repeatedly denied involvement in illegal drugs in the Visayas. To explain his assets, he said the properties under the Loot family were purchased in 1991 yet and that their family also owns a business. (AYB of SuperBalita Cebu)