2 more Quezon City cops face extortion raps

If National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina believes the recent dismissal of Senior Police Officer 4 Jose de la Peña from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) for extortion would serve as a deterrent to other “bad eggs” in the service, he’s got another think coming.

Two more Quezon City policemen now face administrative cases for grave misconduct after a doctor accused them of arresting him on trumped-up charges and demanding payment in exchange for his release.

QCPD director Chief Supt. Mario de la Vega identified them as PO3 Rommel Javinal Apanay and PO2 Roy Perez Peñaverde, both members of the Galas police station.

De la Vega said the complaints against the two would be forwarded to the NCRPO, which has jurisdiction over policemen facing grave offenses.

Earlier this week, Apanay and Peñaverde were relieved of their duties and disarmed after a doctor claimed they accosted him while he was inside his vehicle at 11 p.m. on Saturday in Barangay (village) Mariana, Quezon City.

According to the 47-year-old complainant, the two policemen accused him of having sex with his driver inside the vehicle and demanded that he give them P25,000 or else, they would charge him and put him in jail.

The doctor said that after some haggling, the amount was reduced to P20,000 although no money changed hands after he personally reported the matter to Espina himself.

Apanay and Peñaverde, on the other hand, have denied the charges against them.

Meanwhile, a former Quezon City policeman and his two cohorts have been arrested after they were accused of accosting women on false charges and then demanding money in exchange for their release.

In addition, two of their alleged victims also accused the three men of molesting them.

Jaime Albao, 54, who held the rank of SPO4 until he opted for early retirement in May, was arrested on Wednesday with Jay-R Baguise, 41; and Joseph Villamor, 22, after a vendor accused them of taking her money amounting to P600.

According to the 31-year-old victim, the three molested her, threatened to bring her to the QCPD headquarters in Camp Karingal and place her under arrest.

De la Vega said that when he was arrested, Albao was wearing his old police badge. Baguise, on the other hand, was in a blue police shirt.

Seized from the three were a police badge, a blue police shirt, two police identification cards and various ID cards, gun licenses, five cell phones and the P600 taken from the vendor.

Also recovered was a pistol and two folding knives.

Before his retirement, Albao was with the recently dissolved QCPD Mobile Patrol Unit, the last assignment of De la Peña before his dismissal from the service. Ironically, De la Peña, who was initially suspended from the police force for extorting money from Espina’s son, was dropped from the police roster for pulling the same stunt on the son of a retired military general.

De la Vega said that Albao and his cohorts were arrested after a woman vendor complained to authorities that three men grabbed her from a passenger jeepney on Tandang Sora Avenue on Wednesday and dragged her inside a heavily tinted Mitsubishi Adventure.

Inside the vehicle, the men kept on asking her to turn over the P24,000 she was supposedly carrying.

At one point, they ordered her to undress and molested her inside the moving vehicle.

The alleged victim said that when she asked them what her crime was, the three threatened her with arrest, said Supt. Michael Macapagal, Talipapa police station commander.

It was only after she gave them the P600 she had with her that they released her. She immediately sought help from policemen who conducted a search and spotted the Mitsubishi Adventure in front of Tierra Pura Subdivision.

“At least three other complainants are willing to come forward against them. Apparently, they operate in that area,” Macapagal said.

When news of their arrest was flashed on television, another of their supposed victim came forward, a 28-year-old woman, who said she had had enough of being accosted by Albao and company.

The woman, an unemployed resident of Barangay Pasong Tamo who often hangs out in the area, accused Albao of arresting her on false charges several times this year, molesting her and demanding money from her.

“Sometimes when they arrest me, they accuse me of buying drugs. Sometimes they would make me give them a massage inside the vehicle,” the woman added.

De la Vega said they were checking if Albao had been charged with any administrative case when he was still with the QCPD.

In the meantime, the three are facing charges of robbery, usurpation of authority and acts of lasciviousness.

“With their arrest, we hope to deter suspects pretending to be policemen …,” De la Vega added.