COPS VOW TO ERADICATE EXTORTION, FRAME-UPS

The Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOT Force)
and the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) have joined
forces in an ambitious bid to attain a zero cases of frame-ups,
planting of evidence and other extortion rackets by anti-drug units in
Metro Manila.

AID-SOT Force chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay met with
ranking NCRPO officials in Camp Crame to map out a common strategy to
unmask and arrest members of local anti-drug units involved in
extortion rackets in the guise of legitimate anti-drug operations.

"We agreed to form a special teams in each district, whose job is to
go after rogue cops," said Aglipay noting that the continued extortion
activities by local AID-SOT Force units are hurting the government
accomplishments in the war against illegal drugs.

Those who attended the meeting held at the AID-SOT Force headquarters
in Camp Crame included Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Tor, NCRPO's
deputy for administration and the five district directors in Metro
Manila.

Aglipay also brought up the latest extortion activities of a local
AID-SOT Force unit who released four Chinese nationals in exchange for
P3 million each.

The four Chinese nationals and two others were on board a Honda Civic
when arrested this month. The car's compartment was found loaded with
shabu. However, the local AID-SOT unit declared only the arrest of two
people and the recovery of a substantial amount of shabu.

The AID-SOT chief ordered an investigation into the release of the
four Chinese nationals as he warned those involved in the extortion
racket would face the full force of the law.

Aglipay and the NCRPO officials admitted it is very difficult to catch
local AID-SOT Force units engaged in extortion rackets because of the
non-cooperation of complainants.

But Aglipay emphasized that the special team should be headed by
dedicated police officers loyal to the district directors.

"We want this extortion racket stopped once and for all, and we cannot
do it without the cooperation of district directors who have
supervision over anti-drug units," he explained.

NCRPO chief Director Ricardo De Leon threw his full support behind
Aglipay's bid to stamp out extortion by anti-drug units.

"It is our common priority to put to a stop this illegal practice by
our men. We will not tolerate this type of wrongdoing," said De Leon
noting that of the 36 rogue cops arrested by his men since they
launched an intensified anti-kotong campaign last February, 14 of them
were drug related.

De Leon said Inspector Ramon Arsenal and Hoover Pascual, of the
Central and Eastern Police District's AID-SOT Force, were among those
arrested in the NCRPO's anti-kotong operations.

Arsenal was arrested for extorting P10,000 from an overseas Filipino
worker while Pascual was nabbed in a entrapment operation.

"Summary dismissal proceedings have been pursued against these 14
hulidap cops. Aside from administrative cases, criminal charges have
been slapped against these scalawags before the courts where they will
face the full force of the law," De Leon said.