QC police station chief sacked over men’s extortion case

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 11 Commander Chief Supt. Igmedio Bernaldez has been relieved, following an extortion case allegedly involving nine police officers under his watch.

“Kaya ko naman pina-relieve, kasi this is happening under his area.  Kabilin-bilinan natin ay bantayan ang ating mga kapulisan, doble na nga ang sweldo ga-ganyan pa sila,” recently installed QCPD Director Sr. Supt. Joselito Esquivel said in an interview with DZMM on Friday.

“Hindi po ito tino-tolerate ng ating kapulisan dito, pulis din po ang huhuli sa kanila,” Esquivel added.

Esquivel said the raid at the Galas police station Thursday night stemmed from a tip they received from a certain Lorenzo Miguel, who said that nine police officers had allegedly tried to extort money from a relative, who was arrested for an illegal possession of firearms case.

The QCPD’s Counter-Intelligence Task Force and District Operations Unit (DSOU), along with the Special Weapon and Tactics (SWAT) unit launched the raid at Station 11 and arrested Chief Insp. Erwin Guevarra, of the Special Drug Enforcement Unit, as well as eight other officers involved in the case.

“Lumalabas po sa initial investigation ‘yong chief po ng special drug enforcement unit at saka walo niya pang tao ang nakapirma po doon sa pre-operations (papers),” Esquivel noted.

“Sinasabi po na nahingan na sila (complainant) ng pera na around P100,000, and then humihingi pa (arrested officers) ng additional na P100,000,” he added.  /kga