INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Two of the three dismissed police officers who are wanted for abducting an online cockfighting agent in Laguna province, one of the 34 “e-sabong” enthusiasts missing since 2021, have yielded to authorities.
Former Patrolman Rigel Brosas and Staff Sergeant Daryl Paghangaan surrendered separately before the Philippine National Police-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (Imeg) Calabarzon regional office in Calamba City, Laguna, on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Warren de Leon, director of Imeg, said in a statement on Saturday.
“After a series of negotiations, our Team 4A convinced these two former PNP personnel to surrender and already stop putting the image of the PNP in a bad light,” he added.
The two are subjects of warrants of arrest issued by Judge Luvida Roque of San Pablo City, Laguna Regional Trial Court Branch 29 on Jan. 17 for kidnapping and serious illegal detention (with no bail recommended), and four counts of robbery with violence (bail set at P400,000 for each count).
The two were among the five police officers accused of kidnapping e-sabong “master agent” Ricardo Lasco in his home in San Pablo City on Aug. 30, 2021.
The three other dismissed police officers previously assigned to the intelligence unit of Laguna provincial police office were Lt. Henry Sasaluya, Master Sergeant Michel Claveria and Patrolman Roy Navarete.
‘One group involved’
Only Brosas, Paghangaan and Navarete were indicted by the Department of Justice prosecutors, while Sasaluya and Claveria were cleared for lack of probable cause. Navarete remains at large.
According to PNP spokesperson Jean Fajardo, initial findings show that “only one group or it is the same personalities that are involved” in the disappearance of the e-sabong enthusiasts.
The prosecutors established that Lasco was forcibly taken from his residence in San Pablo City on Aug. 30, 2021, by a group of armed men.
Claiming to be agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, the men reportedly also took several valuables, amounting to over P10 million, from four women who were in Lasco’s house at the time.
Based on the complaint of Lasco’s relatives, the police officers claimed that Lasco was the subject of warrant of arrest for large-scale estafa or fraud. Lasco has since disappeared.
It was the first case to be resolved among several complaints involving the disappearance of 34 e-sabong operators and aficionados, most of whom are believed to have been abducted from cockfighting arenas in Manila, Laguna, and Batangas in 2021.