Three Quezon City policemen and a Chinese national were arrested for allegedly extorting money from two POGO operators in Pasig City, Eastern Police District (EPD) director Brig. Gen. Matthew Baccay said on Tuesday.
Police identified the suspects as Cpl. Jason Bourne Daligdig, Cpl. Marvil Pagod, Pat. Jerry Uni, all assigned to Eastwood Police Station of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD); and Jiang Fu, a translator.
The four were arrested on complaints of POGO operators William Foo Wei Lam, a Malaysian, and Chen Zhixiaang, a Chinese national.
Based on police report, the three policemen, who are wearing their police field service uniforms, barged into the condominium unit of Lam and Chen in Barangay Ugong, Pasig City around 4 p.m. last Sunday. The three cops then handcuffed the POGO operators.
Baccay said that, through the translator, the QC cops asked Lam and Chen to pay them P300,000 in exchange for their liberty while they were at the unit.
“They were asked by the three QC cops to transfer P300,000 to a bank account in China,” he said.
Due to the commotion caused by the arrest, the tenants of the condominium called the EPD and reported the incident.
EPD cops arrived in the condominium unit and asked the QC cops why they were apprehending Lam and Chen.
“My men asked them why they were arresting the POGO operators, they just said because of violations. They can’t even specify their violations,” Baccay said.
“They were operating outside their jurisdiction, which is QC, without proper coordination with us. They even removed their patched from their uniforms to conceal their mother unit,” he continued.
Due this, the EPD cops apprehended the QC policemen and the translator.
“They cannot show any arrest warrant or identify any violations of Lam and Chen,” he said.
Baccay believes that Lam and Chen are not the only victims of the cops. He said they are now probing if there were other victims of the three cops’ modus operandi.
“We prosecute them to the full extent of the law. We do not condone such illegal acts,” he said.
The EPD director said they are now checking if the erring policemen were involved in other criminal cases.
The policemen and the translator are now held at the Pasig Police detention cell. (Jel Santos)