Camp Olivas cops charged for extort try

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Men of the Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) based at Camp Olivas, the regional police headquarters in Pampanga, are facing extortion charges for allegedly demanding P1 million from the owner of a bar they raided here last week.

Chief Inspector Heryl Bruno, provincial chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said he also ordered an investigation as the RSOG operatives allegedly identified themselves as CIDG members.

Bruno said the owner of Honey Co’s bar on Fields Avenue here has filed extortion charges against the RSOG men before the city prosecutor’s office.

The police officers though have yet to be named pending their identification by the complainant and witnesses, although they definitely belong to the RSOG, he added.

“The report is that the erring cops had asked the owner for P1 million so that charges would not be pursued against him,” Bruno said.

The RSOG men, allegedly identifying themselves as CIDG ope-ratives, reportedly raided Honey Co’s bar on the night of June 5 and rounded up 29 women for still unclear reasons.

“If their assignment in the raid was legitimate, why did they have to pretend to be CIDG agents?” Bruno asked.

After the bar owner and the women’s relatives went to his office as the police officers said they belong to the CIDG, Bruno said he checked with the RSOG regional office at Camp Olivas in San Fernando and confirmed that the women were there.

An entrapment operation was laid out last Saturday after the owner and the RSOG men supposedly agreed on the time and place for the payoff, but the police officers were apparently alerted and did not show up.