MANILA, Philippines–Three Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents were arrested with their informant in Quezon City on Monday night after they allegedly held a drug suspect’s live-in partner captive for 10 hours and took her valuables and cash worth P65,000.
“The PDEA had a legitimate operation based on a pre-operation report but their target was the victim’s partner, a certain Del, who is suspected of selling illegal drugs,” case investigator PO3 Jamie de Jesus of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said.
He added that when the antinarcotics agents failed to find Del, they took his partner, Lily Mae Lozada, instead and tried to extort money from her.
The PDEA agents were identified as intelligence officers Rufino Lumase Jr., 39, and Florian Rose Cada, 23, and administrative employee Danilo Superable Jr.
They were apprehended with their informant Jake Richard Consorte in an eatery on Mindanao Avenue around 10 p.m. on Monday. Lozada was rescued upon the PDEA agents’ arrest.
Lozada told the police that her ordeal began around 12:30 p.m. on Monday while she was alone inside her house under the Camachile Bridge in Barangay (village) Unang Sigaw, Quezon City.
She said she was preparing lunch when six persons barged inside her house, introduced themselves as PDEA agents and demanded to know where Del was.
Lozada added that when she told them that Del was not home, they took the P14,000 in cash she had in her possession along with around P51,000 worth of gadgets, watches and jewelry.
She further said that the agents handcuffed her and forced her into a white Isuzu Crosswind. Unknown to her, some of her relatives saw her being bundled into the vehicle and called the police who alerted other units about the incident.
Lozada told probers she was then driven around for hours by the agents who told her that they would release her in exchange for P200,000.
At one point, the van stopped at the PDEA office in Barangay Pinyahan, Quezon City, where two of the agents got off. She said that she was not allowed to get out of the vehicle.
Policemen from the Talipapa station later found the vehicle in front of an eatery on Mindanao Avenue. They arrested the four suspects and rescued Lozada who was with them.
Recovered from the PDEA men were two .45-cal. pistols and some ammunition.