PO1 Leomer Redondo Suarez (left) and PO1 Allan Cabañero are escorted back to Camp Crame on Friday after being charged in the Pasay City prosecutor’s office with robbery-extortion.—JEANNETTE ANDRADE
Two policemen who went absent without official leave (Awol) in 2014 were arrested on Thursday night for allegedly extorting money from a security guard being accused of rape.
PO1s Leomer Redondo Suarez and Allan Cabañero, both under the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), initially demanded P200,000 but later settled for P50,000, forcing the guard to write a “promissory note” so he could pay in installment.
Suarez and Cabañero were arrested at a fast food restaurant in Pasay City in an entrapment operation by the Counter-Intelligence Task Force of the Philippine National Police (PNP-CITF).
Trap quickly set
PNP-CITF spokesperson Chief Insp. Jewel Nicanor said the trap was set just hours after a 28-year-old security guard called up the task force to report the extortion.
According to the security guard, a woman—one of his fellow tenants in a boarding house
—had accused him of molesting her during a drinking session on Aug. 18 and threatened to charge him with rape.
The 20-year-old woman, who claimed to be Suarez’s cousin, later told him to just settle the matter with Suarez.
The officer eventually got a a call from the policeman, who demanded P200,000 for the rape charge to be dropped.
“There was a negotiation so a rape charge would not be filed,’’ Nicanor said. “The (guard) pleaded that he could not afford the amount, (which) was later reduced to P50,000. He was then forced to write a promissory note that he will pay P10,000 every month.”
First payment
Suarez and Cabañero arranged a meeting with the guard for his first cash payment of P10,000 on Thursday night at a restaurant at the corner of Edsa and Taft Avenue. A PNP-CITF team moved in for the arrest as soon as they were handed the marked money.
PNP personnel records showed that Suarez was recently reinstated in his post under the NCRPO after being Awol since 2014.
Cabañero, meanwhile, was found to be still Awol at the time of his arrest. Both policemen entered the service in 2012.
The two policemen remained in the PNP-CITF’s custody on Friday after being charged with robbery-extortion in the Pasay City prosecutor’s office.