CHINESE 'DRUG QUEEN' SAYS POLICE SOUGHT P6-M PAYOFF

SUSPECTED Chinese "Drug Queen" Yu Yuk Lai - a.k.a. Anita Uy - turned the
tables on her accusers on Friday, telling the joint Senate panel
investigating her arrest of a supposed attempt by police to extort P6
million from her.

Yu, who was arrested two weeks ago by elements of the Presidential
Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) while gambling at the Holiday
Inn-Manila Pavilion casino, told members of the joint Senate committees on
justice and human rights, and illegal drugs and public order, she had long
been a victim of police extortion.

Yu said a police official had recently tried to extort P6 million from her
in exchange for the photographs of six police officers involved in her
previous arrest at the Diamond Hotel casino and the raid of her San Juan
residence.

The police officer initially wanted P6 million cash in exchange for the
photos, but later settled for P20,000, Yu claimed, as she produced the
alleged photographs for examination of the Senate panel.

Yu said even members of the now defunct National Police Narcotics Command
(PNP-Narcom) had, on several occasions, attempted to milk money from her.

Senators Rene Cayetano and Robert Barbers, co-chairpersons of the joint
Senate panel, vowed to establish the identity of the men in the
photographs. Barbers, however, expressed reservation that Yu's action could
be a "diversionary ploy."

Meantime, Cayetano said the Senate committees would recommend the filing of
obstruction of justice charges against sportsman Go Teng Kok.

Cayetano said Go, president of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field
Association (PATAFA), should be charged for "attempting to mislead the
Senate investigating panels on several occasions."

Go has denied the accusations.

Yu, who is charged with drug trafficking, was arrested last year while in
possession of several kilos of shabu. She was with her son - and without
police escort - at the time of her arrest at the Holiday Inn casino. She
presented arresting officers a medical pass issued her by a Manila court.

In a related development, Interior and Local Government (DILG) assistant
secretary Reynaldo Jaylo said the DILG has rejected the leave applications
filed last week by some senior officials of the Bureau of Jail Management
and Penology (BJMP) and is set to cancel the leaves of BJMP deputy chief
Arturo Alit and BJMP Metro Manila director Senior Supt. Temistocles
Jamisolamin.

Alit went on leave two weeks ago, just as Senate was to open its
investigations into the Yu case, while Jami-solamin took his break shortly
after DILG Secretary Alfredo Lim ordered his relief for "giving favors to Yu."

Lawmakers reiterated that Yu's case was not an isolated one for the BJMP.

Last year, kidnapping and car theft suspect Alfredo Pelinio, slipped his
two jail guards at the Manila Domestic Airport and escaped aboard a plane
to Davao.

Pelinio was killed in an alleged shootout with police last February. His
police escorts, Edgar Didulo and Raymundo An Jr., remain active officers of
the BJMP."