2 EPD investigators sacked for extortion

Two policemen from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Eastern Police District (EPD) were ordered relieved yesterday for allegedly extorting money from a truck driver two weeks ago.

EPD director Senior Superintendent Rolando Sacramento said robbery charges will also be filed against the suspects, PO3s Geminic Tingne and Taciano Dagami once found guilty of accusations that they sold 42 sacks of confiscated flour when the driver, Felix Paor, 32, failed to come up with the P15,000 they demanded.

Both Tingne and Dagami vehemently denied the charges. However, the victim positively identified them in a police line-up in the presence of Sacramento.

Paor of 532 Insalay St., Barangay Pineda, Pasig City said Tingne and Dagami and three other unidentified policemen on board a gray Toyota Corolla and a private jeep blocked his path along Shaw Blvd., in Mandaluyong at around 10:30 p.m. last Dec. 18.

The police team arrested him without telling him why, Paor said. The arresting officers confiscated his cellphone and P1,500 found in his wallet when he failed to produce pertinent documents for his flour cargo, he added.

According to Paor he was brought by the policemen to the EPD CID office on Meralco Avenue, and detained for several minutes.

One of the policemen ordered him to contact the owner of his cargo, Alfredo Guido, 52, to raise P15,000 in exchange for the release of the flour.

When Guido failed to show up at the appointed time, the policemen escorted the truck to the Wellington factory also along Shaw Boulevard where they sold 42 sacks of flour to a certain "Bensoy."– Non Alquitran