PO1 Mayet Eblahan is arrested on Dec. 14, 2016 for allegedly helping SPO2 Helen Banguel extort money from a concubinage complainant at the Quezon City Police District’s Talipapa Station. (Photo courtesy of the QCPD)
MANILA — Two policewomen and their cohort were nabbed by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Tuesday evening after they extorted P5,000 from a woman who was trying to withdraw the concubinage complaint she filed against her husband at the Talipapa police station.
SPO2 Helen Banguel, the head of the Talipapa station’s women and children protection desk (WCPD), and her associate PO1 Mayet Eblahan, are facing charges of robbery extortion when the former was caught red-handed receiving P5,000 as “miscellaneous fee” from Cristina Marcos at around 11 p.m. Tuesday. The transaction was made inside Banguel’s third floor office at the police station along Quirino Highway.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Chief Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, the QCPD director, said that Marcos sought the police’s help to apprehend her husband, whom she saw enter a motel with a paramour Tuesday morning.
The two were then brought to the police station for investigation, but due to Marcos’ mother-in-law’s pleading, she later decided to withdraw the charges of concubinage against her husband and his lover.
Eleazar said that when Marcos informed Banguel of her decision, the policewoman referred her to Ana Marie Acopio, the alleged secretary of an unnamed lawyer whom Banguel said was the one preparing Marcos’ documents. He added that Acopio then demanded from Marcos a P5,000 fee.
The police official noted that Marcos tried to haggle with Banguel, but the policewoman insisted that she talk it out with Acopio. It was at that point when Marcos decided to bring up the matter with station commander, Supt. Danilo Mendoza, who ordered the entrapment of his staff.
Ana Maria Acopio is arrested on Dec. 14, 2016, for alleged involvement in extorting money from crime complainants at the Talipapa Police Station of the Quezon City Police District. (Photo courtesy of the QCPD)
Mendoza said this was not the first time he heard of Banguel’s illicit activities. He said that on Nov. 24, he received a call from a barangay chairman asking that the miscellaneous fee be lowered to just P2,000. At that time, Mendoza said he warned Banguel to stop such scheme or else charges would be filed against her.
He added that Eblahan was included in the charge sheet since she acted as an accomplice when she failed to report to him what was going on at the WCPD. Mendoza noted that they are also investigating the possible involvement of the other five policewomen in the WCPD.
Eleazar said that based on reports, they found out that Banguel had a pending administrative case of robbery extortion at the National Capital Region Police Office’s internal affairs service. SFM