Arrested in the entrapment operation were Senior Police Officer 1 Jesus Acejo, Police Officers 1 Danilo Hamila, Ricardo Luciano, Fred Faraon, and Manolito Prado.
Police said those arrested were allegedly the ones who abducted Michelle Delmundo, 22, of 3505 Paraiso Street, Sta. Mesa, Manila; and Rosemarie Martinez, 20, of 682 Road 10 Mindoro Street, Sampaloc, Manila.
Meanwhile, DILG Secretary Jose Lina Jr. ordered the Inspection, Monitoring and Investigation Service (IMIS) of the National Police Commission to conduct a investigation into the arrests of the five policemen as he ordered their immediate relief.
"The relief of these operatives shows that we neither countenance nor tolerate any shenanigans committed by policemen belonging to Jericho. But a thorough investigation has to be conducted in order to get to the bottom of this incident," Lina said.
According to police, prior to the arrest of the five suspects, Police Officer 3 Bonifacio Abad and Evangeline Lim, Delmundo’s father and cousin, filed a complaint against a certain Police Officer 2 Ferdinand Sulpico and several others allegedly assigned with the DILG Task Force Jericho.
In her complaint, Evangeline said Sulpico called her and informed her of the arrest of Delmundo and Martinez for allegedly operating a bookie joint last Sunday along Eloriaga Street in San Andres Bukid, Manila.
Police said Delmundo’s relatives were informed by Sulpico through text messaging that the two women were being held at a house along Iridium Street in Sta. Ana, Manila.
Police said that Sulpico, through text messaging, allegedly demanded P10,000 for the release of the two women and that the money be given before the end of the day’s horse races at 10:00 p.m.
Based on the complaint, Manila Police then prepared to conduct the entrapment with the use of marked P10,000 cash. The policemen then went to 2448 Iridium Street where the two women were being held. After receiving the marked cash, the suspects were arrested and disarmed.
Police later rescued the two women from the garage of the house, which was later learned to be the house of Acejo, alleged team leader of the suspects. Though the suspects were arrested and the two women were rescued, policemen failed to recover the marked money.
According to Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo, chief of the WPD General Assignments Section, the marked money was not recovered as one of the suspects passed it to his wife.
Charges of kidnapping, robbery and extortion were filed against the arrested suspects in the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office. Meanwhile, elements of the WPD-GAS are now hunting down Sulpico who remains at large. – Mike Frialde