National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar has ordered the relief of six Manila Police District (MPD) policemen arrested early Thursday for extortion right inside the Manila police headquarters.
Eleazar said Police Officer (PO) 1 Erdie Bautista, PO1 MJ Cerilla, PO3 Michael Chavez, PO3 Dindo Encina, PO1 Arcadio Orbis, and PO1 Martinico Mario were relieved after trying to extort P100,000 from alleged human trafficking suspects they arrested in Sta. Mesa district. All police officers were from the District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) of the Manila police.
Bautista and Cerilla were arrested in an entrapment operation by the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) inside the MPD headquarters around 12:30 a.m.
The remaining four, meanwhile, were still at-large, as of this posting.
Eleazar also said he had further ordered the relief of DSOU head Chief Insp. Joey de Ocampo “by virtue of command responsibility.”
All arrested DSOU operatives will be transferred to the NCRPO headquarters in Bicutan, Taguig City while charges against them are being prepared, according to Eleazar.
“While they are facing criminal charges para sa kaso na ‘yon after which ay makulong sila, doon po sa kasong administratibo ay itutuloy-tuloy po natin…ang pinaka intensyon po natin ay masibak sila sa serbisyo per due process,” the NCRPO chief said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer.
(While they are facing criminal charges for that case, where they can be imprisoned, we will continue with the administrative case…our intention is to relieve them from service in accordance with due process.)
On Wednesday night, DSOU operatives arrested eight individuals for alleged human trafficking but later on purportedly asked them to pay P100,000 for their release.
The two parties haggled and the amount was reduced to P50,000. At this point, a relative of the suspects sought the help of the CITF, which consequently prepared an entrapment operation.
During the operation, the CITF rescued the illegally detained individuals. It turned out that their arrest had no official blotter entry and no spot report was submitted to the MPD’s tactical operations center.
Extortion charges were being prepared against the arrested policemen. /kga