INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY — Two police officers have been arrested in Dasmariñas City, Cavite for allegedly attempting to extort money from an Egyptian national, police said Saturday.
In a belated report, Cavite police said operatives from Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) nabbed Staff Sergeant Randy Batonginog, who is assigned at Imus City police station, and Corporal Roderick Bajado, a member of Dasmariñas police, during an entrapment operation inside a subdivision in Barangay (village) Salitran 4 on Thursday, July 6.
The operation stemmed from a complaint by an Egyptian national, who was unidentified in the report, for alleged robbery extortion against the two policemen.
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According to the report, on July 2, Bajado went to the house of the Egyptian, accompanied by an alleged victim of attempted rape, asking for the settlement of the charges against the foreigner. The Egyptian denied committing the alleged attempted rape.
The report said the cop and the family of the supposed victim allegedly demanded P200,000 from the Egyptian “or else there will be cases filed, prison, and postings on social media, which will destroy his reputation.”
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At around 5 p.m. on July 6, Bajado and his cohort, Batonginog, were collared by IMEG operatives after they were caught in the act of receiving the marked money in exchange for not filing the attempted rape against the Egyptian.
The lawmen immediately seized the service firearms of the two rouge cops before they were brought to Police Region 4A headquarters in Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna for further investigation and eventual filing of charges.
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Colonel Christopher Olazo, Cavite police chief, called on all policemen to have simple lives, as expected of all public officials.
He urged local police chiefs to remind their personnel to refrain from engaging in any form of illegal activities.
“Illegal activities are not tolerated under any circumstances. We will file administrative charges against erring Cavite police personnel found guilty of any unlawful acts, and we will not hesitate to dismiss them from the service,” Olazo warned in a statement Saturday.