4 OMB men, retired cop arrested for extortion

Four members of the Special Action Force (SAF), the elite fighting unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and a retired policeman were arrested last Monday for allegedly extorting P400,000 from a businessman in Antipolo City.

The four suspects — PO3 Simeon Salazar, PO2 Eulogio Catallo and PO1s Ray Apuya and Enrique Assaud, all assigned to the Anti-Optical Media Piracy Task Force, and retired Inspector Jesus de Guzman — were nabbed after receiving the marked money from businessman Felix Sotto Jr.

Superintendent Primitivo Tabujara, Antipolo City police chief, said they confiscated from the suspects the marked money, four caliber .45 automatic pistols, two caliber 9-mm pistols, a Nissan Vanette with license plate UGA 654 and a stainless owner-type jeep (DNO 410).

Tabujara said the suspects, armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Antonio Eugenio of the Manila regional trial court, raided Sotto’s house in Barangay de la Paz last Monday.

The SAF men confiscated four fake labels for video compact discs from Sotto, but instead of bringing him to the Optical Media Board (OMB) office, they allegedly demanded P400,000 in exchange for the dropping of charges against him.

Sotto initially handed over P80,000 to the suspects.

To make sure that Sotto would give them the balance on Dec. 5 as he promised, they took his Toyota Revo with license plate WKW 473.

But without the suspects’ knowledge, Sotto sought the help of Tabujara who, in turn, immediately set up an entrapment operation against them.

According to Tabujara, the SAF men failed to present documents for the handguns confiscated from them.