By AARON RECUENCO
Seven policemen assigned to Navotas surrendered to the anti-scalawag unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) after they were implicated in another case of extortion from an arrested drug suspect.
Senior Supt. Chiquito Malayo, head of the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF), said the surrender came after a failed entrapment wherein the supposed payment of the extortion demand did not materialize as the cops sensed that they were being operated upon.
“We coordinated with the leaderhip of the Northern Police District and that is when they were specifically identified, that is when they also surrendered,” said Malayo.
He identified them as PO3 Kenneth Buare Loria; PO2s Jessrald Zapar Pacinio and Jonnel Barocaboc; PO1s Emmanuel Alojacin, Mark Ryan Mones, Christian Paul Bondoc, and Jack Rennert Etcubanas.
Malayo said their operation stemmed from a complaint of the parents of a drug suspect who complained to the CITF that they were being asked to pay P100,000.
The money is allegedly for the release of their son. But should they fail to do so, Malayo said cops allegedly threatened to kill the arrested drug suspect.
It was then that an entrapment was mapped out wherein the parents were asked to deliver the money at the MC Mall in Malabon.
“The payoff did not materialize s the suspects (policemen) claimed that police were informed,” said Malayo.
The CITF operatives then proceeded to the NPD headquarters were the parents of the victims were asked to identify the cops extorting money from them.
“They are already under our custody and they will be charged,” said Malayo.
The arrested suspect, on the other hand, was turned over to his family.
It was learned that the alleged drug suspect was arrested by a group of armed men who identified themselves as policemen in Barangay Longos in Malabon on August 11.
More than 50 policemen have already been arrested for various cases, most of them are extortion from arrested drug suspects, since the CITF creation six months ago.