Manila cops arrest fellow officer at HQ

A policeman, tagged as the coddler of Manila’s pickpockets and snatchers, was arrested and disarmed by his colleagues after he was chanced upon by a robbery victim right inside the police headquarters last night.

Moments before his arrest, Police Officer 3 Alejandro Diamse, detailed at the theft and robbery section of the Manila Police District, was furious at operatives of the homicide section as they questioned his girlfriend Angel Castillo, who had been tagged by a rob victim as among those who held him up.

However, this did not deter homicide detectives from arresting and disarming Diamse after he was positively identified by Allan Osorio as one of three persons who held him up and took his cellular phone along Pedro Gil street in Ermita.

Osorio said he was accosted by Diamse and Castillo and forced to board a pedicab which took him to the MPD headquarters along United Nations Avenue. In front of the headquarters, Diamse allegedly divested him of his money and cell phone.

Operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, under Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, immediately conducted a follow-up operation, resulting in the apprehension of the pedicab drivers, who corroborated the allegations of the victim.

Sapitula said the two pedicab drivers will now act as witnesses against Diamse and his girlfriend.

MPD officer-in-charge Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarzosa immediately ordered dismissal proceedings against the cop suspect after robbery charges were filed against him.

An irate Abarzosa told mediamen that he will not allow officers like Diamse to continue serving at the MPD. "Dapat sa ganitong klaseng pulis ay makulong para di maparisan."

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza could only shake his head when the policeman was presented before him, saying, "ironically, kung sino pa ang operative ng theft and robbery section ay siya pang nagnanakaw sa civilian. Dapat mawala sa serbisyo ang ganitong pulis."

At the same time, the mayor urged victims of crimes committed by policemen to come forward and file their complaints "for justice would definitely be served."

Atienza also expressed his appreciation for the resolve of Abarzosa to cleanse the ranks of Manila policemen.

Woman survives salvage try, tags cop

Meanwhile, a 46-year-old female vendor miraculously survived a salvage try allegedly perpetrated by three men, one of whom was a Manila policeman.

The body of Milagros Borja, of Barangay Palanan, Makati City, was discovered in a grassy ravine in Carmona, Cavite several days ago.

She sustained five stab wounds from an ice pick but survived and told police of her ordeal at the hands of the suspects.

She identified her abductors as Police Officer 2 Amando Gariando, detailed at the Binondo police station, Filomeno Talaguit and another civilian whose identity the police withheld pending his arrest.

According to Borja, the officer and the two civilians picked her up on suspicion that she was coddling the cop’s girlfriend who reportedly left him.

She said she was tortured to reveal the whereabouts of the missing girl, but swore that she did not know anything. She said she was blindfolded and felt the thrust of a pointed object on her breast and body.

She feigned death while being loaded into a car by the suspects. She was later dumped on a deserted highway.

The Carmona policemen reported their findings to the MPD, which immediately launched a manhunt for the suspects.

Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo Jr., chief of the General Assignment Section, in coordination with Binondo police station chief Superintendent Bernardo Diaz effected the arrest of Gariando in his house at Villa Olympia, San Pedro, Laguna, and Talaguit at his lair in Tondo.

The two suspects were positively identified by the victim yesterday as her abductors and attackers during a press presentation before Atienza by Abarzosa.

Atienza commended Abarzosa and Pedrozo for the swift arrest of the suspects, and ordered the immediate dismissal of the cop suspect from service.

"Di na dapat makabalik sa serbisyo ang ganitong klaseng pulis. Sila ang mga klase ng pulis na nagpapawala ng tiwala ng publiko sa ating kapulisan," Atienza said.

The mayor also pledged to assist in the medical expenses of the victim, while Abarzosa assured her that she would get all the support of the MPD in her quest for justice.