3 cops charged for kidnapping woman

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recently filed kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges before the Caloocan City prosecutor against a Quezon City policeman and two other alleged members of the police force for reportedly abducting a woman sometime last year.

Director Nestor Mantaring identified the victim as Mary Ann dela Torre, alias Me-An, who has been missing since was supposedly abducted on Aug. 28, 2007.

The NBI identified the suspects as PO1 Josel Calvario, currently assigned at the Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) of the Quezon City Police District; Richard Roe, and one unidentified man, both of whom are reportedly assigned to the QCPD-CIU.

The charges were filed after the father of the victim, Renato dela Torre, a resident of Bago Bantay, Quezon City, filed a complaint before the NBI last Sept. 10, 2007, days after the victim went missing.

The complaint filed before the NBI was kidnapping with homicide, after the NBI suspected that the victim may already be dead, said Anthony Yu, of the NBI’s Special Task Force, the division of the bureau handling the case.

NBI records showed that on Sept. 10, 2007, the NBI-STF received a complaint from Dela Torre’s father, who alleged that members of the QCPD-CIU kidnapped his daughter around 8 p.m. of Aug. 28, 2007.

The elder Dela Torre said while he was going home in a tricycle, he noticed a commotion some meters from his house in Brixton Ville, Caloocan City, where he used to reside.

He said he witnessed two men grab his daughter and drag her into a red Toyota Corolla (TLV-726), which was parked along the road. He identified the driver of the vehicle as Calvario.

Roe was later identified as one of the two men who allegedly grabbed the victim.

The NBI found that Calvario started fetching the victim after her common-law husband was arrested and detained at the QCPD jail on theft charges.

The victim’s husband has escaped from detention and is still at large.