Cops vow to eradicate extortion, frame-ups

The Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOT Force) and the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) have joined forces in an ambitious bid to attain a zero cases of frame-ups, planting of evidence and other extortion rackets by anti-drug units in Metro Manila.

AID-SOT Force chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay met with ranking NCRPO officials in Camp Crame to map out a common strategy to unmask and arrest members of local anti-drug units involved in extortion rackets in the guise of legitimate anti-drug operations.

"We agreed to form a special teams in each district, whose job is to go after rogue cops," said Aglipay noting that the continued extortion activities by local AID-SOT Force units are hurting the government accomplishments in the war against illegal drugs.

Those who attended the meeting held at the AID-SOT Force headquarters in Camp Crame included Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Tor, NCRPO’s deputy for administration and the five district directors in Metro Manila.

Aglipay also brought up the latest extortion activities of a local AID-SOT Force unit who released four Chinese nationals in exchange for P3 million each.

The four Chinese nationals and two others were on board a Honda Civic when arrested this month. The car’s compartment was found loaded with shabu. However, the local AID-SOT unit declared only the arrest of two people and the recovery of a substantial amount of shabu.

The AID-SOT chief ordered an investigation into the release of the four Chinese nationals as he warned those involved in the extortion racket would face the full force of the law.

Aglipay and the NCRPO officials admitted it is very difficult to catch local AID-SOT Force units engaged in extortion rackets because of the non-cooperation of complainants.

But Aglipay emphasized that the special team should be headed by dedicated police officers loyal to the district directors.

"We want this extortion racket stopped once and for all, and we cannot do it without the cooperation of district directors who have supervision over anti-drug units," he explained.

NCRPO chief Director Ricardo De Leon threw his full support behind Aglipay’s bid to stamp out extortion by anti-drug units.

"It is our common priority to put to a stop this illegal practice by our men. We will not tolerate this type of wrongdoing," said De Leon noting that of the 36 rogue cops arrested by his men since they launched an intensified anti-kotong campaign last February, 14 of them were drug related.

De Leon said Inspector Ramon Arsenal and Hoover Pascual, of the Central and Eastern Police District’s AID-SOT Force, were among those arrested in the NCRPO’s anti-kotong operations.

Arsenal was arrested for extorting P10,000 from an overseas Filipino worker while Pascual was nabbed in a entrapment operation.

"Summary dismissal proceedings have been pursued against these 14 hulidap cops. Aside from administrative cases, criminal charges have been slapped against these scalawags before the courts where they will face the full force of the law," De Leon said.