Another extortion victim files raps vs Quezon City cop De la Peña

MANILA, Philippines—Another victim of Senior Police Officer 4 Jose de la Peña has lodged criminal charges against the policeman, who allegedly tried to extort money on a false “necking and petting” charge inside a parked car last May.

The 25-year-old sales executive formally filed a robbery complaint before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, with the help of the Quezon City Police District.

The victim requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of his job with a private company.

Chief Inspector Rodelio Marcelo, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said the charges were lodged Monday after the complainant positively identified De la Peña as the one who tried to allegedly con him on the night of May 21.

The complainant said he thought he was De la Peña’s only victim until he heard that the son of the new National Capital Region Police Office director, Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, was also victimized allegedly by the same policeman.

In the complaint affidavit, the victim said he and his girlfriend were talking inside his Nissan Murano parked outside a bar on Panay Ave.

At around 9 p.m., a flashlight was trained on them and a man wearing a white shirt and blue pants accosted them.

The supposed offense? Grave scandal, which supposedly carries a P10,000 fine for each offender.

The complainant told the apprehending cop he did not have that kind of money but that the policeman allegedly insisted on taking over the car’s steering wheel, with a police car trailing them.

“He told me that he would bring me to the police station, and we were driving toward Edsa,” the victim told reporters in an interview.

During the drive, the policeman allegedly threatened to call more mobile patrol cars, which he said would cause more trouble.

The complainant insisted that he didn’t have that kind of money with him, but was forced to give P7,000 to the police officer before they were let go somewhere along Edsa near the GMA 7 MRT station.

Before dawn the next day, the victim went to Camp Crame to report the incident and was able to identify De la Peña.

In June, Chief Supt. Mario de la Vega, the QCPD director, forwarded the administrative complaint of this incident to the NCRPO for summary dismissal proceedings. De la Vega transmitted the case to the NCRPO because the penalty for the administrative offense of grave misconduct, under which robbery extortion falls, is beyond the QCPD director’s powers.