WPD cop held for ‘hulidap’

Another bad cop gets the ax.

Western Police District policemen arrested one of their own and another person yesterday for alleged hulidap activities.

Arrested by elements of the Tondo police were PO1 Francisco Bacunawa, 32, detailed with the WPD-District Tactical Operations Center (DTOC) and his companion Rudy Viejo, 39, both residents of Block 5, Road 10, Magsaysay Village, Tondo, Manila.

According to Superintendent Marcelino Cardeno, acting chief of the Lopez, Tondo police station, the suspects were arrested in their residence on the complaint of Rosendo Yu, Tondo barangay chairman and resident of 2962 Benita St., Gagalangin, Tondo.

Yu told investigators that the suspects, along with three others, went to his house at about 12:30 p.m. last Thursday and threatened to arrest him.

Bacunawa who was then reportedly armed with a 9mm pistol, introduced himself as a Manila policeman, and at gunpoint, reportedly took Yu’s gold necklace and pendant worth P8,000. Yu’s son Junior was also stripped of his gold necklace worth P5,000, police reports said.

Investigator-on-case PO2 Marlon San Pedro added that Bacunawa and Viejo were later recognized by Anatolio Silud, a barge captain, as the ones who also allegedly tried to "arrest" and rob him early morning last Saturday.

Silud told police that the two suspects also went to his house in Tondo and threatened to arrest him. However, Silud became doubtful and sought the assistance of police detailed with a nearby detachment.

The suspects, however, were no longer in the vicinity when the detachment policemen arrived to verify their identities.

Cardeno said charges of robbery are now being readied against the two suspects as their other cohorts are being hunted.