A POLICEMAN facing robbery and child abuse cases is being linked to a salvaging case that happened in Barangay Busay, Cebu City two weeks ago.
PO2 Jaime dela Cruz of the Regional Headquarters Service Group (RHSG) allegedly conducted a buy-bust on Sergio Pagobo in Barangay Day-as, Cordova, Cebu and arrested him on the night of Nov. 10 p.m.
The next day, Pagobo was found dead in Upper Busay.
Dela Cruz denied any involvement in the incident and said he will just let his lawyers handle everything.
He was arrested at 10:45 p.m. Monday after residents at the Dońa Pepang Cemetery on M.J. Cuenco Ave. called up the police and alerted them about an armed person in the area. He was caught in possession of a .45 pistol loaded with five bullets.
He reportedly failed to present documents authorizing him to carry or possess the firearm.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador said that even if this was his issued firearm, dela Cruz was still unable to produce the papers.
That he was carrying an issued firearm is unlikely, though, as he is already facing several cases, said Comendador.
He explained that if a police officer is facing a case, the unit he belongs to does not issue a firearm to him.
Before dela Cruz’s arrest, members of the CIIB conducted a buy bust inside a mall at the North Reclamation Area and arrested Lyndon Salimbaga Pancho, 31.
According to the CIIB report, Pancho sells and delivers drugs to his customers inside malls and restaurants.
When they talked to Pancho, he spilled the beans on the killing of Pagobo, naming dela Cruz, a man called Jeremy and another woman as his companions.
Officials believe dela Cruz, Pancho and the two others tried to extort money from Pagobo but the latter failed to come up with the amount, leading him and his companions to decide to kill him.
The police learned about this after Pagobo’s mother and another witness revealed information to the Cordova Police Station.
The two told Cordova police that men who identified themselves as police officers arrested Pagobo in their house in Sitio Matab-ang in Day-as, Cordova.
The witness said a buy bust took place that night and that Pancho was the one who identified the group as police officers.
Pagobo’s mother tried to go with them when they boarded a black Kia Pride car, with plate number UBX 385. However, she was pushed out of the car. Comendador said dela Cruz’s group then tried to extort money from Pagobo in exchange for his liberty.
But when he failed to come up with the amount demanded, his family sought help from the Cordova Police Station and tried to arrange an entrapment.
The entrapment did not push through because Pagobo was found dead the next day.
Cordova Police Chief Bonifacio Tecson coordinated with Ylanan and informed him of the events.
Comendador believes the group sensed there was a pending entrapment.
He added that they did not have an office to book the arrest because they were unauthorized to conduct drug operations, which was why they eliminated him.
With the information, Ylanan said they decided to launch operations against them, starting with Pancho.
Dela Cruz denied the allegations but refused to elaborate, saying he was letting his lawyer handle the matter.
Dela Cruz was entrapped by the National Bureau of Investigation 7 in February last year for robbery extortion when he was still assigned to the CCPO’s Security and Service Group (SSG).
Comendador said he had a pending warrant of arrest for robbery and that he was facing cases of child abuse, arbitrary detention and violations of the anti-drugs law.
When he was presented to reporters yesterday, Comendador was unhappy to see him wearing a basketball jersey marked CCPO-SSG, his former unit.
He was so irked that he ordered his men to make dela Cruz wear his jersey inside out.
Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) Chief George Ylanan said they will backtrack on all other drug-related killings that remained unsolved to see if they can trace this to dela Cruz.
These include the mysterious death of a still unidentified man found in Barangay Babag last Sunday, whose hands, face and feet were wrapped in packaging tape. He was also in handcuffs.
Comendador said they will have all the empty shells recovered from the crime scenes and cross matched with the shell found last Nov. 11.
They are also trying to find out if dela Cruz’s group is behind other extortion activities in Cebu Province, using the name of different police units.
Earlier, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) issued a warning to the public about a group of persons claiming to be PDEA agents conducting extortion activities throughout Cebu.
Ylanan hopes that if witnesses see photos and footages of the two arrested persons, they will surface and shed light on drug-related killings and extortion activities.
Comendador said they will file a case for serious illegal detention against the two, adding that the crime of murder is absorbed in the complaint as a consequence of the detention. (MEA)
