Photo taken from qcpdpnp.com
MANILA, Philippines—Two policemen are now facing criminal raps for allegedly trying to extort P20,000 from a doctor on false accusations that he was having sex with his driver inside a parked car.
Slapped with a coercion complaint before the Quezon City prosecutors’ office were PO3 Rommel Apanay and PO2 Roy Penaverde, formerly of the La Loma police station.
The 47-year-old doctor filed his complaint on Wednesday afternoon, assisted by the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.
The complainant earlier lodged administrative charges against the policemen for the Sept. 29 extortion in Barangay (village) Mariana at around 11:30 p.m..
The QCPD director, Chief Supt. Mario dela Vega, said the charges for grave misconduct would be transmitted to the National Capital Region Police Office, the body with jurisdiction over severe offenses by cops.
Apanay and Penaverde have been relieved from their duties and are now assigned to the QCPD administrative holding unit while their case is being investigated.
In his statement to case investigator PO2 Modestino Juanson, the doctor and his driver had just come from a basketball game and were fixing their things inside their car when a police car drove by them.
Apanay reportedly approached them, followed by Penaverde. The policemen accused the doctor of having sex with his driver inside the car.
In exchange for not filing a case, the police officers allegedly asked for P25,000 from the complainant, which was lowered to P20,000.
The doctor added that the policemen even threatened to bring him to the nearest precinct and warned him he could lose his doctor’s license.
The incident only ended when his brother arrived with a policeman to talk to the other law enforcers, after which Apanay and Penaverde apologized to the doctor.
The complainant then sought the help of Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina, NCRPO director, who then told the QCPD to look into the alleged extortion attempt.