4 Highway Patrol members nabbed for extortion in Iligan City

ILIGAN CITY–Two members of the police’s Highway Patrol Unit in Northern Mindanao and two Highway Patrol Auxiliary members were arrested here following an entrapment operation.

City police chief Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga said members of the Iligan City Police Office’s Counter Intelligence Task Force conducted the entrapment operation following complaints from motorists that Highway Patrol members had been extorting money from them.

Ga said arrested were Senior Inspector Rolando Rigat, Senior Police Officer 2 Crisanto Bernardo, Mac Harvey Abad and Sidney Cañete, all members of the Iligan City Highway Patrol Team under the Northern Mindanao Highway Patrol Unit.

Ga said the local police decided to conduct the entrapment after a citizen’s complaint was passed to them from Hotline 8888 about policemen extorting money from motorists.

The complaint was specific as it mentioned patrol car No. 1003 as the vehicle being used by the policemen, who would flag down vehicles and cite violations to force the drivers to just pay to avoid penalties.

Rigas’ group used that particular patrol car, he said.

“Another complainant from the area collaborated the complaint,” Ga said.

On Wednesday evening, Ga said Rigas’ team bit the bait.

When his office was raided after the operation, policemen recovered the marked money used in the entrapment as Rigas was trying to flush it in the toilet bowl.

Ga said recovered from Rigas’ drawer were money in various denominations amounting to P5,000.

He said the arrested policemen and HPT auxiliary members were being held at the local police office as charges were being prepared against them./lb