Cop 'milking' PNP applicants nabbed

ILOILO CITY, Philippines - For several years already, it has been alleged that several policemen have been asking certain amount from applicants who wanted certainty of making it to the cut of new policemen.

This allegation has now a face after members of the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) arrested in an entrapment a police official who allegedly demanded P25,000 from recruits.

Supt. Robert Rodriguez, RID officer-in-charge, identified the suspect as Inspector Nonito Venteroso, Jr., operations officer of the Guimaras Police Provincial Office, who was collared by RID operatives outside a fastfood chain at J.M. Basa St in this city.

Venteroso allegedly asked P25,000 from police applicant Gavin Gonzales, a resident of Cuartero town in Capiz, who applied for the police service for the third time after failing twice in the neuro-psychiatric examinations in his previous tries.

This time while waiting for the results of the neuro-psychiatric test, Venteroso allegedly offered help to Gonzales, but of course with a price. Reports said that Venteroso allegedly went to the applicant's house informing the latter that he failed again in the test.

Rodriguez said that the police official allegedly offered a solution to Gonzales: For P25,000 cash, he can find ways to make the applicant pass the test. Gonzales had misgivings on the offer but he agreed nonetheless, with the agreement that he would give Venteroso a down payment of P10,000 first.

Before complying however with the offer, Gonzales told his situation, casually, to SPO4 Adolfo Cabanzal, regional executive senior police officer (RESPO) of the Police Regional Office-6, who in turn reminded him that the test results could not be manipulated in a manner.

It was then that a plan was hatched to entrap Venteroso. The RID, together with personnel from the Regional Health Service, map out a plan to catch the police official red-handed. It succeeded when Venteroso received from Gonzales the P10,000 “down payment.”

In a later investigation, it was learned that Venteroso was just ingenuous of making money from applicants. He did not, after all, dip his fingers to make them pass the neuro-psychiatric examination, but secured instead a copy of the results of those who already passed before these are released.

He then picked from among the passing applicants the one whom he could immediately reach, tell that "passer" he or she did not pass, and then offer his "service" for him or her to pass in exchange of money.

PRO-6 director, Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, Jr., vowed to pursue criminal and administrative cases against Venteroso, for estafa and grave misconduct, which could result to his dismissal from service.

Venteroso entered the service last 2001 as PO1 and, in 2009, he applied for lateral entry and got the rank of police inspector.

Querol said the investigation on the “application scam” will not end on Venteroso, as he already ordered a thorough investigation on Venteroso’s possible cohorts.

Western Visayas has a quota of 550 police recruits for this year alone. The applicants will undergo the initial screening before the neuro-psychiatric examination. Once they made it through these, they will take medical and dental examinations, after which the agility test for the passers and a board interview. - THE FREEMAN