Now comes another version of the incident that is drawing two units of the Philippine National Police into a head-on collision.
Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who were accused of intervening in the arrest of two women last week struck back at the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Thursday, saying it was the latter’s members who tried to extort millions of pesos from the women.
Speaking to reporters at Camp Crame, CIDG-National Capital Region chief Senior Supt. Joel Coronel said his men entered the picture because they were responding to a complaint that Marilyn Ong, one of the two women, had been kidnapped by armed men who were demanding P20 million for her release.
On Wednesday, QCPD director Chief Superintendent Mario de la Vega alleged that the CIDG men “intervened and assaulted” three of his men to prevent them from taking custody of Ong and her associate, Edna Alfuerto, who had been convicted by a Manila court for violation of the bouncing checks law.
De la Vega said his men went after Ong and Alfuerto in separate operations on May 18 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued against them in January 2011. Ong was the first to be arrested, then she agreed to cooperate with the police in cornering Alfuerto by setting up a meeting with her later that day, he said.
De la Vega said the 15 CIDG members, who showed up with Alfuerto in that meeting and then assaulted three of his men, would be charged with obstruction of justice, grave threats and physical injuries.
The QCPD chief stood his ground Thursday, saying his men were on a “legitimate operation” against two fugitives. “We followed procedure and if they want an investigation, we welcome it.”
But Coronel said the CIDG operatives acted on information given also on May 18 by Alfuerto and lawyer Marie Espina, who sought help after Ong asked them through text messages to produce P20 million, as demanded by her purported abductors.
He recalled that according to Ong’s text messages to Espina and Alfuerto, Ong was then travelling with a companion in a Hyundai Starex van when a group of men in a Mitsubishi Adventure blocked their path on Daang Hari Road going to Ayala Alabang subdivision, Muntinlupa City.
The armed men in plain clothes introduced themselves as agents of Interpol, the CIDG and the National Bureau of Investigation, and forced Ong and her companion to the Mitsubishi Adventure, Coronel said.
Ong later sent text messages to Alfuerto and Espina, saying her captors were asking for money, first set at P10 million then later raised to P20 million. She asked them to bring the cash to a coffee shop at Teacher’s Village in Quezon City that same day.
Coronel said the CIDG immediately formed two teams for the “rescue operation” and even coordinated with the QCPD’s Tactical Operations Center.
When they arrived at the coffee shop, he said, they “took control of the situation,” disarmed the men who introduced themselves as members of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU), and “rescued the victims.”
But after about five minutes, about 70 Quezon City policemen arrived at the scene and a tense standoff followed.
The QCPD men then disarmed the CIDG operatives and took custody of Alfuerto and Espina, he said.
Coronel said that it was only later the responding CIDG team learned that Ong and Alfuerto were subjects of an arrest warrant and that Ong was facing a criminal case in the United States over an $80-million scheme to defraud a bank.
Coronel said his office was prepared to cooperate with any investigating body but urged PNP higherups to appoint an “independent third party” to handle the probe.
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said he had called an investigation into the incident, noting it was too early to say if the CIDG men could be held liable.