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MANILA, Philippines – A retired police officer was arrested in Rizal after being linked to a “ghost pension scam,” the Philippine National Police (PNP) said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Jose Chiquito Malayo, the PNP deputy chief for administration, said retired Senior Police Officer 4 Romeo Arela, 65, was collared at his house in Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City, on Monday afternoon.
“Retired SPO4 Arela was criminally and administratively charged for defrauding the government of millions of pesos through the ‘ghost pension scam’ in the PNP,” Malaya said.
Arela was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Edgardo Bellosillo of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 95 on Nov. 12, 2018.
According to the PNP, the warrant was for malversation of public funds and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Malaya noted, however, that a fact-finding investigation recommended 11 additional counts of graft to be lodged against Arela before the Quezon City Court.
In 2020, the PNP, then headed by Archie Gamboa, purged over 1,000 ineligible pensioners from its official list of beneficiaries.
When he was still interior secretary, the late Jesse Robredo bared that from 2006 to 2011 the government spent around P1 billion paying non-existent or so-called “ghost pensioners” of the PNP.
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