2 cops tagged as teen rob gang protectors arrested, charged

Authorities have taken into custody the two Manila policemen who were recently tagged by two teenage robbers as the brains behind a group of minors who rob tourists in the Ermita area.

The lawmen—one with the rank of a senior police officer 1 and the other a rookie with the rank of police officer 1—are now detained at the Manila Police District (MPD) Integrated Jail.

An MPD source who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter told the Inquirer that the policeman with the rank of SPO1 was known to the minors as “Oban” or gray hair.

The source said that the policeman’s superiors had described him as “hard-headed” and “stubborn.” One of them had even complained that it was hard to give Oban orders because he usually ignored them.

“As early as 2010, I have heard of an ‘Oban’ who is believed to have been acting as a tipster and lookout in robbery incidents involving tourists. But I did not know Oban was a policeman,” he added.

The source explained that it was only after he was tagged by the teen robbers that Oban was finally identified by the police.

The lower-ranked policeman, on the other hand, is his recruit, he said.

Apart from being in charge of the minors who pick the pockets of tourists as they stroll in the Ermita area, Oban also protects the members of the “Ativan Gang” who drug foreigners before robbing them.

The two teenage robbers—a boy and his sister—were arrested after they took a Japanese tourist’s cash and valuables worth P40,000 as he was walking on Mabini Street.

The other night, the two policemen were charged with human trafficking in the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office.