First in years: Police station force sacked for extort raps

Supt. Victor Pagulayan and 50 of  his men have finally been relieved from Station 6 of the Quezon City Police District for alleged kidnapping and extortion.

Pagulayan was commander of Station 6 at the Batasan area.

A graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), Pagulayan was exposed in this space two weeks ago for allegedly extorting money from a friend, Bel Galindez, whose son Niko, 19, was caught by cops from Station 6 buying “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) from a poseur-pusher.

Bel told me Pagulayan was paid P200,000 for Niko’s release.

Last month, Quezon City Councilor Ranulfo Ludovica accused members of the Batasan police station of extorting money from arrested drug suspects.

While Pagulayan was being investigated following the Galindez complaint aired in  this column and Councilor Ludovica’s allegations, the gang struck again.

This time, they allegedly abducted Calvin Rey Noche, Catherine Borleo, Leo Gaerlan and Rainer Ocampo and took them to the Batasan police station.

It was not clear why the four civilians were arrested by the group.

The gang allegedly  took the victims’ Pajero and Honda Jazz  and held them for ransom.

Like their previous modus operandi involving Galindez, they set the amount of P500,000 for the release of the two cars but eventually settled for P300,000.

In the case of Galindez, Pagulayan at first demanded P500,000 for her son’s release but settled for P200,000 after much haggling.

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This is the first time in many years that the entire force of a police station—from its commander down to the lowest PO1 (Police Officer 1)—was relieved and replaced.

If memory serves, in the early 1980s the entire complement of the Station 5 of the then Western Police District (now Manila Police District) was relieved by President Marcos for ineptitude in going after criminals preying on tourists in the capital city’s Ermita-Malate district.

Modesty aside, it was my column at the Manila Bulletin that exposed the inefficiency of Station 5.

But Pagulayan and his men were not sacked and replaced for inefficiency; they were all relieved for reportedly committing criminal acts.

And to think that this police official threatened to file libel charges against this columnist for exposing his  extortion activities as claimed by  a woman whose son was caught by Pagulayan’s men buying drugs in Diliman, Quezon City, which was out of their jurisdiction!

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Why is it that many graduates of PNPA are involved in crimes?

The PNPA is the police counterpart of the Philippine Military Academy of the Armed Forces.

The police officials involved in the Edsa holdup last year were products of the PNPA.

A number of PNPA graduates have been involved in various crimes like extortion, kidnapping and murder.

If they don’t commit crimes, they abuse civilians.

In the late 1990s, several fresh PNPA graduates went on a drinking binge in a Manila bar hours after their commencement exercise and were  so drunk they beat up an old woman who owned the bar.