Two policemen who reportedly dropped the names of Vice President Jejomar Binay and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to frighten businessmen and jueteng operators into giving them money have been shipped out to Basilan province.
The order to assign Police Officer 2 Angelito “Bebit” Aguas and Police Officer 1 William Cajayon to the Basilan Philippine National Police (PNP) Provincial Office came from Robredo himself who said he heard about the two policemen’s illegal activities from “reliable sources” whom he did not identify.
Aguas used to be with the Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group (CIDG), the PNP’s lead investigating arm, while Cajayon was assigned at the Quezon City Police District.
Robredo said that based on the information he received, the two used his name as well as that of Binay to extort money from illegal gambling operators and night club owners.
He also referred to a column which came out in the tabloid “Remate” on Dec. 19, 2011, in which Cajayon was reported as making the rounds of various KTV bars and sauna massage parlors in Metro Manila and collecting protection money purportedly for the Inter-Agency Council against Anti-Trafficking (Iacat).
The Iacat is headed by Vice President Jejomar Binay and
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
The same column also accused Aguas of collecting jueteng payoffs in behalf of police officials belonging to the CIDG and National Capital Region Police Office. It also claimed that the policeman often dropped Robredo’s name in his alleged illegal activities.
“I had received several derogatory verbal and text message reports about the extortion activities of PO2 Aguas and PO1 Cajayon. I put to task the PNP to investigate them,” Robredo said.
“As part of its disciplinary action against erring policemen, I think it was just right for the PNP to transfer them to the PNP regional office at ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao),” he added. Basilan is one of the provinces under the ARMM.
He said he would ask the PNP-ARMM officials to “closely monitor the activities of [the two policemen] and ensure that they stay there and undergo proper disciplinary and moral
value recovery training from their superiors.”