By JAIMIE ROSE R. ABERIA
Manila Police District (MPD) Director Joel Coronel relieved yesterday the city’s Traffic Enforcement Unit (TEU) chief and another cop over extortion charges.
MPD-TEU chief Supt. Lucile Faycho was sacked along with one of her men, PO2 Joseph Buan, who was arrested on July 28 in an entrapment operation set up by operatives of the Philippine National Police-Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF).
Buan and some of his colleagues were reportedly collecting P500 to P2,000 from bus operators of Viofel, EPL, and Yohan Bus companies every week.
Coronel clarified though that Faycho’s relief was an “administrative remedy” in order to pave the way for an “impartial and objective investigation.”
“So, it’s not a penalty. Depending on the results of our investigation, if we find probable cause to charge them, then that’s the time they will have to be transferred or reassigned permanently,” the MPD chief explained.
Should Faycho be cleared of any criminal or administrative liability, she will be reinstated to her post, Coronel stressed.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, meanwhile, has expressed outrage over the arrest of yet another MPD policeman for extortion, the third in less than a month.
“This unfortunate incident undermines our efforts to professionalize our city police force, so I want to know how and why this criminal activity had been tolerated, and who are the people protecting it,” he said.
On July 7, CITF operatives arrested Chief Insp. Ramon Nazario, commander of the police community precinct at the University Belt, based on the extortion complaint filed by a group of vendors.
Nazario was arrested along with Barangay 409, Zone 42 Kagawad Gregorio Bernardo and a certain Raymund Baga.
On July 21, CITF personnel arrested PO1 Raymund Gulapa who allegedly demanded R15,000 from an arrested drug suspect in exchange for the lowering his criminal case.
