Angeles police chief gives way to extortion probe

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – This city’s police chief has voluntarily given up his post amid the probe of four of his men for allegedly extorting P400,000 cash from a nephew of  Pampanga first district Rep. Carmelo Lazatin.

Chief Superintendent Alan Purisima, Central Luzon police director, said Senior Superintendent Danny Bautista asked to be relieved of his post to allow “an independent and impartial” probe of his men accused of extortion.

Earlier, Bautista had relieved Police Station 1 head Chief Inspector Rico Cayabyab and his men SPO1 Ronald Santos, PO2 Cyrus Lising, and PO2 Michael Villareal who allegedly extorted P400,000 from Lazatin’s nephew last Jan. 19.

Purisima lauded Bautista for the latter’s voluntary move, describing him as a “responsible person who is not inclined to hold on to his post like a barnacle to the hull of a ship.”

But Purisima said Bautista, who has been assigned to Camp Olivas, the regional police headquarters in the City of San Fernando, is not yet off the hook.

“If we find out that there was negligence on his part, then he, too, would be answerable,” he said.

Bautista was replaced by Senior Superintendent Melchor Reyes who used to be the police chief of Mabalacat town and a member of the Pampanga intelligence unit. Reyes will head the team investigating the relieved police officers.

The four policemen from Station 1, meanwhile, were reassigned to the personnel holding and accounting unit of the city police.

Earlier, Lazatin provided police with a footage from a CCTV camera at the Fort Stotsenburg Hotel, of which the lawmaker is part-owner, at the Clark Freeport here, purportedly showing Lising and Villareal accompanying Lazatin’s nephew and one of his sons in encashing a check for P400,000 that was later turned over to the policemen.

Lazatin, who had been a three-term mayor of Angeles, said he has never tolerated drug users even if they are his relatives, adding though that he would not allow the planting of evidence and extortion.