4 Manila cops face robbery charges

Four Manila policemen, one of them the alleged "trusted man" of a controversial station commander, are now in hot water after they were accused by six Binondo residents of tresspassing and robbery yesterday at the General Assignment Section (GAS) of the Western Police District (WPD).

However, in their sworn affidavits, the complainants identified only two of the accused, PO1 Domingo Lamboon and SPO1 Hexor Perez, the alleged trusted man of Superintendent Elmer Jamias, WPD Station 11 commander.

The complainants alleged that at around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Perez and Lamboon, together with two other still unidentified alleged policemen, barged into their residences along Del Pan st., Binondo and ransacked their homes.

"Don't try to stop us because we are looking for something," Rommel Inosanto, 35, quoted Perez as saying in Filipino.

Inosanto said an unidentified policeman then bodily searched him and took P150 from his pocket. "Are you complaining?" Inosanto quoted the policeman as taunting him.

Federico Nerida, 55, whose house was one of those ransacked, said his wife suffered a nervous breakdown due to the incident.

"It smacks of the martial law regime," said complainant Ricardo Mayorga, saying the policemen were in civilian clothes and were not armed with search warrants.

The complainants could not tell why their houses were searched by the policemen. They were asked to identify the other policemen from pictures in the WPD personnel file.

The STAR repeatedly tried but failed to get the side of Jamias.

The WPD-GAS summoned the policemen involved but they failed to appear. Charges of violation of domicile and robbery were filed against the four policemen.