12 cops charged in court over illegal raid

Twelve policemen and their two informants were charged with robbery before the Caloocan regional trial court (RTC) for allegedly stealing from a businesswoman’s house during an illegally conducted drug raid.

In her Feb. 7 order, Caloocan RTC Branch 126 Presiding Judge Lorenza Bordios ordered the arrest of Chief Inspector Timothy Aniway Jr.; Senior Inspector Warren Peralta; Police Officers 1 Ariel Furio, Jay-R Sabangan, Jaime Natividad, Jay Gabata, Michael Angelo Miguel, Marvin Poblite, Louie Serrano, Sherwin Rivera, Francis Quidic and Sampang Sampurna II; and informants John Paul “Kingkong” Narrido and Mark Andrada “Pilay” Dizon.

Peralta was indicted as the team leader of the operation. Aniway, who was the police community precinct commander, was also indicted for his failure to refute the charges.

The 14 men were charged for entering Gina Erobas’ house in Barangay 188 without a search warrant on the night of Sept. 7, 2017 and allegedly stealing P27,000 worth of items, including a Samsung cellular phone, two wrist watches and P6,000 cash.

While the lawmen said they acted on a tip that Erobas was an alleged source of illegal drugs, closed-circuit television footage showed them lifting the stolen items from the television rack and one of the informants putting the items in his pockets.

The footage also showed one policeman telling the informant to keep quiet. Another video showed that the police were able to enter the gate using a bolt cutter.

Furio, Sabangan, Natividad, Serrano, Miguel, Rivera, Sampurna, Peralta, Gabata, Poblite and Quidic posted their P20,000 bail after the judge lowered the prescribed P40,000 bail for robbery.