A fuming mad commander reprimanded and punished seven police officers who were allegedly involved in the extortion of three Korean nationals from Angeles, Pampanga.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa hurled invectives as the cop-suspects explained their involvement in the case. The policemen were asked to assume a plank position as part of their punishment.
“Bakit ninyo binira? Bakit ninyo binugbog? Anong klaseng legitimate operation? Legitimate? Legitimate bang bumira ng police operation, legitimate bang mambugbog?” Bato angrily asked when one of the policemen said that he thought that they were doing a legitimate operation.
(Why did you hit them? Why did you maul them? What kind of legitimate operation was that? Legitimate? Is it legitimate to beat up people in a police operation?)
According to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the suspects have been relieved of their posts. “The Chief of Angeles City Police Senior Supt. Sidney Villaflor, chief of Angeles City Police Station 5 Chief Inspector Wendel Arinas and his deputy commander Senior Inspector Rolando Yutuc were also sacked.”
The seven cops allegedly barged into the house of the Koreans in Friendship Plaza Subdivision in Angeles to conduct a raid for online gambling in Dec 2016. They detained the three victims for more than seven hours.
CCTV footage showed the cops taking valuables such as golf clubs and jewelry from the home of the victims. The Koreans also had to pay PHP300,000 to be released.
The police had no search warrant for the operations. They did not find evidence of online gambling in the home of the Koreans.
Meanwhile, Rappler reports that two out of the seven cops who were punished and shamed in front of the media were clean after all.
“The final findings of the multi-unit police special investigation task group showed that PO3 Goemerson Evangelista and PO3 Arnold Nagayo were not among the 7 policemen of the Angeles City Police Station 5 who allegedly victimized Lee Ki Hun, Min Hoon Park, and Lee Jun Hyung last Dec 30,” said the report.
Evangelista and Nagayo were relieved that their names have been cleared after going through a hellish and traumatic experience.