By AARON RECUENCO
ILIGAN CITY – Members of the Regional Highway Patrol Unit 10 (RHPU 10), Iligan City Highway Patrol Team (ICHPT) were arrested Wednesday evening by the personnel of the Counter Intelligence Task Force (CITF) with the elements of Iligan City Police Office (ICPO).
This after receiving P3,000 in marked money from the driver of the vehicle to whom they had issued a traffic citation.
Police Senior Superintendent Leony Roy Ga, City Director here identified the suspects as P/Sr. Insp. Rolando C. Rigat, Chief of the Iligan City Highway Patrol Team (ICHPT), SPO2 Crisanto T. Bernardo and two civilian auxiliaries Mac Harvey T. Abad and Sidney Canete.
The marked money was recovered inside the comfort room of Chief Rigat when the latter attempted to dispose of it.
Small bills of different denominations amounting to five thousand pesos were also recovered from his drawer.
The operation stemmed from a complaint sent to the Citizen’s Complaint Hotline 8888 from motorists traversing Macapagal highway in Iligan City that elements of the RHPU 10 and ICHPT were allegedly extorting money from motorists in the guise of having committed traffic violations. A second complaint from the area corroborated the report.
Ga confirmed that his office received at least three complaints of extortion activities, forcing them to conduct the operation.
“Most probably, dismissal from the service ang magiging penalty sa kanila,” said Ga.
