7 Navotas cops face ax for extortion

Seven members of the Navotas police are set to undergo dismissal proceedings following their arrest for allegedly extorting P100,000 from a drug suspect’s family on Saturday, an official said yesterday.

They were also charged with kidnapping and slight physical injuries before the city prosecutor’s office in Malabon City, said Senior Superintendent Jose Chiquito Malayo, who heads the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF).

Police Officer 3 Kenneth Loria; PO2s Jonnel Barocaboc and Jessrald Pacinio; and PO1s Emmanuel Benedict Alojacin, Mark Ryan Mones, Christian Paul Bondoc and Jack Rennert Etcubañas will remain under CITF custody, he said.

Director Oscar Albayalde, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief, said the policemen, all assigned with the Navotas police intelligence division, apprehended drug suspect Mark Echapare in Barangay Longos, Malabon on Aug. 11.

One of the policemen allegedly used Echapare’s mobile phone and called up his mother.

The policemen reportedly demanded P100,000 from Echapare’s parents in exchange for his release but his mother sought the help of the CITF, resulting in the arrest of the policemen.

“We have been dismissing from the police force erring policemen, especially those involved in extortion, but this does not stop them from engaging in these illegal activities,” said a dismayed Albayalde as he vowed to rid the NCRPO of the scalawag police officers.

He ordered the seven policemen reassigned to the NCRPO’s regional police holding and accounting unit while the regional investigation and detective management division is investigating the extortion charges against them.

“Once it is proven that they are guilty as charged, we would immediately dismiss them from the police service,” Albayalde said.

Senior Superintendent Allen Ocden, Navotas police chief, said the policemen prepared a spot report on Echapare’s arrest but failed to record it in the police blotter – a violation of the PNP’s arrest procedure.

Ocden said he and the CITF visited the police officers’ homes until they showed up at the Navotas police headquarters after he threatened to offer a P5 million reward for their capture.