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Saturday, July 22, 2006
Policeman falls in payoff entrapment
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
AGENTS of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 yesterday arrested a policeman for soliciting and accepting money to "fix" the summary dismissal case brought up against a colleague.
The bust was made right across the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 headquarters along a busy Osmeña Blvd. about 3:30 p.m. An agent of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division took part in the entrapment.
Disarmed, handcuffed and put inside an unmarked NBI vehicle was SPO1 Lauriano Manriquez of the Regional Legal Service Division, formerly known as the Judge Advocate General's Office.
Manriquez denied the charges.
Payments
A policeman who had been ordered dismissed from service but is fighting the ruling filed the complaint that led to the bust.
PO2 Wilson Salinas, in an interview at the NBI office, said Manriquez collected a total of P18,000 from him since May this year. The last payment of P3,000 was the marked money used in the bust.
The money was to pay for the motion for reconsideration that Manriquez allegedly prepared in his behalf and submitted to the National Police Commission (Napolcom), where his dismissal proceedings were heard.
"He told me that my case is still being deliberated on. He asked for an additional P3,000 to give to some Napolcom official. He didn't know that I already went to the Napolcom and secured a copy of the ruling. My dismissal was upheld," Salinas said in Cebuano.
"I am the one now without a job. And he still tries to make money off me," he added.
Assigned to the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office, Salinas was ordered dismissed in early 2005 after failing to report for work for two months.
He filed a motion for reconsideration and was reinstated upon the orders of Cebu Provincial Police Director Vicente Loot.
He was back again in service when a Napolcom summary dismissal order was released last March 6.
"I immediately went to a lawyer for a motion for reconsideration but, while doing so, a fellow police officer told me to go to Insp. (Ludevico) Cutaran and plead with him for assistance," he said.
Cutaran, who heads the Regional Legal Service Division, sits in the Napolcom board.
Salinas went to Cutaran's office last May 19 but the official wasn't there. He was instead entertained by two of Cutaran's men, one of whom was Manriquez.
Assurance
He said Manriquez assured him that he could facilitate a reconsideration of the summary dismissal order and file, in his behalf, all the required documents.
"He asked for P15,000 and I paid him P5,000 on the same day. I paid the remaining P10,000 last May 24," Salinas said.
Salinas said he made subsequent and repeated follow-ups with Manriquez but was always told that the matter was being taken care of, prodding him to decide to make follow-ups himself.
He went to Napolcom and was informed that his dismissal was already upheld.
He sought the help of the NBI and an entrapment was set up. The payoff was made right across the PRO 7 headquarters.
Manriquez, who received the marked bills from Salinas, did not resist arrest when the NBI agents approached.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 22, 2006 issue)
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