SWEET TALKER Victims point to the woman, who name-dropped a ranking police official, to collect money from them as NCRPO chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar, looks on.—NCRPO PHOTO
A woman, who name-dropped a ranking police official to collect money in exchange for the reinstatement of a dismissed policeman and an easy pass for police recruits, was arrested on Wednesday.
Operatives of the National Capital Region Police Office-Regional Special Operations Unit (NCRPO-RSOU) collared 29-year-old Dianne Mae Navarez during an entrapment in her residence on Alejandrino Street in Barangay Vitalez, Parañaque City.
NCRPO chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar said Navarez lured her victims by name-dropping his predecessor, Deputy Director General Camilo Cascolan, now the chief of directorial staff of the Philippine National Police.
Fraternity members
In an affidavit, victim Emmanuel Carlos said he and Navarez were introduced in 2017, after he was dismissed from the PNP for dishonesty.
The suspect told him she could help reinstate him to the service, saying she and Cascolan were both members of Beta Sigma fraternity. The 37-year-old Carlos said he instantly believed Navarez after she showed him photos of her with Cascolan, PNP’s Top 4 man.
Carlos had given P80,000 to Navarez to process his papers, with the latter even sending screenshots of her conversation with Cascolan.
Navarez accompanied the victim to the office of Cascolan in Camp Crame, Quezon City, in July.
Carlos even had a picture with Cascolan taken but his reinstatement was not discussed.
Carlos and his wife went back in October to the office of Cascolan, who was then already the chief of the directorial staff, to follow up on his reinstatement.
Cascolan, however, told him he was not aware of it and also disowned the messages purportedly sent by him that the suspect had forwarded to Carlos.
Carlos then asked for police assistance when Navarez demanded P5,000 from him for the supposed Christmas party of Cascolan, and threatened that he would not be reinstated anymore if he would not produce the amount.
Other victims also surfaced, including four police aspirants from Nueva Ecija province, to complain that Navarez had also demanded money and assured them of breezing through the police application process.
During the entrapment operation, RSOU operatives recovered two cell phones from Navarez which contained her conversations with the victims.
She was detained at the NCRPO headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig, to face charges of robbery-extortion and estafa.
Her coaccused for estafa, Pia Lyn de Guzman of Cabanatuan City, however, is still at large.