Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Admin case filed vs. 3 VCS cops
AN ADMINISTRATIVE complaint was filed against three Cebu City policemen who became the subject of an entrapment last week for an alleged P1.2-million extortion.
Medardo de Lemos, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 chief, lodged the complaint against SPO1 Jaime Otadoy, PO1 Raniel Capangpangan and PO3 Rey Albotra before the Regional Internal Affairs Section (RIAS) through PNP Regional Director Silverio Alarcio yesterday.
In an attached letter, de Lemos said the bureau is also investigating two others—Insp. Wilbert Parilla and PO2 Milo Arreola—over their possible involvement in the alleged extortion.
Otadoy, Capangpangan and Albotra all belong to the Cebu City Police Office’s (CCPO) Vice Control Section (VCS). Parilla was their commanding officer, while Arreola was a teammate.
Entrapment
The NBI set up an entrapment for Otadoy, Capangpangan and Albotra right inside the VCS headquarters last Aug. 22.
The sting came after businessman Reuel Lerio filed a complaint that the three policemen allegedly tried to extort P2 million from him, after threatening him with a non-bailable drug case the day before.
He had previously been charged for drug use.
From P2 million, the demand was reduced to P1.2 million. Lerio said he was released from the VCS office after a relative paid P200,000.
Only Otadoy was arrested during the entrapment.
Capangpangan eluded arrest, while Albotra was not at the camp when Lerio went there last Wednesday, for the balance of the payoff.
Lerio was with an NBI undercover agent tasked to carry out the arrest as soon as the money changed hands.
According to sources, Capangpangan handled the cash but the arrest could not be declared immediately because the undercover agent got accosted by Arreola, who allegedly got suspicious.
The ensuing commotion reportedly allowed Capang-pangan to slip away via the CCPO firing range.
NBI Special Investigator Arnel Pura, in a separate interview, said the bureau is hoping that despite being fellow police officers, the investigators at the RIAS will have a “better appreciation” of the facts of the case.
The NBI has charged Otadoy, Capangpangan and Albotra with simple robbery, extortion and various anti-graft violations before Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas right after Otadoy was arrested.
But the anti-graft office only gave due course to the simple robbery charge.
This allowed Otadoy to immediately post the P20,000 recommended bail. The other charges have been re-docketed for standard preliminary investigation upon the recommendation of Graft Investigator Vicente Roble.
Payment
It is not known why Roble only opted to file the simple robbery charge when Otadoy was identified by the complainant and four other witnesses.
Lerio said Otadoy was the one who made the demand.
The four other witnesses testified that Otadoy and his two co-respondents received a “down payment” of P200,000 from the businessman the day before the entrapment.
Pura said the simple robbery charge was not even filed specifically for Otadoy but for Albotra and Capangpangan.
He said this was because, according to Lerio, the two divested him of his watch and necklace when he made the down payment. (KNR)
