QC cops in extortion case sent to ARMM, despite gov’s plea

The three members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) who allegedly tried to extort money from a suspect’s family have been ordered reassigned to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), adding to the long list of officers sent to the southern region.

The order came a week after ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman asked the Philippine National Police to reconsider its practice of transferring rogue cops to his region, considered the country’s poorest, as a form of punishment.

Chief Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, QCPD director, said the reassignment of PO3 Aprilito Santos, PO3 Ramil Dazo and PO3 Joseph Merin was ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte, and that they would still be facing administrative and criminal complaints.

The case against Santos, Dazo and Merin stemmed from the complaint of Iluminada Leetiong, who alleged that the officers asked for P120,000 when they came to their house on Jan. 19 to serve arrest warrants on her son Raymond. The younger Leetiong is an accused in a cybercrime case pending in the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court.

The three policemen were then reporting to warrant and subpoena section of the QCPD. Records showed that they had received dozens of medals for exemplary service since joining the PNP.

In December 2016, three police officers formerly assigned with the Tactical Motorized Unit were also sent to ARMM after they were accused of extorting a million pesos from drug suspects arrested a month earlier. Four more officers tagged in a robbery-extortion complaint were also sent to the region in November.

In a statement on Jan. 17, Hataman asked the PNP to stop treating his region as a trash bin for rogue cops.

“The region confronts issues such as poverty, hunger and the rise of terror groups, and we need the best of our country’s police, [not] the worst,” he said.