Pubdate: Sat, 22 Oct 2005
Source: Sun.Star Cebu (Philippines)
Copyright: 2005 Sun.Star
Contact:  http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1690
Author: KNR
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Philippines

STATION COMMANDER, 7 OTHER COPS CHARGED

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday filed anti-graft
charges against eight Consolacion police officials, including the
station commander, for allegedly soliciting money in three separate
occasions from a drug trafficking suspect and his partner.

Sr. Insp. Claro Benatiro was impleaded in the anti-graft charge after
Mary Ann Deniega identified him as the one who accompanied P02 Antonio
Aguisanda when the latter came to collect yet another round of payoff
outside the Mercury Drug outlet in Consolacion late Thursday afternoon.

Deniega (she used her mother's maiden name Flores in a previous
interview for security reasons) initially tagged the official only as
"Chief" because "it was how the other policemen called him."

Aguisanda and Benatiro were inches from arrest, as the NBI monitored
the "pickup." The two evaded arrest by pulling out of the scene and
sending another man - Jerry Perez - to collect the money.

The NBI ended up busting Perez in the act of receiving P10,000 marked
bills placed inside an envelope.

Another man, Romulo Sundo, was also taken into custody. He was the
motorcycle driver Perez had hired to drive him to the pickup site. He
was later released.

But even before the charges could be filed, Benatiro yesterday faced
the music and admitted before Cebu Provincial PNP Chief Vicente Loot
that it was he who the complainant was alluding to.

He said he used his car and drove it that time, but denied they were
out to collect extortion money. He said they were set up.

He said Deniega arranged the meeting because she was going to identify
a personality in the anti-drug business to them.

Impleaded in the charge that NBI agents Arnel Pura and Florante
Gaoiran lodged before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas were
Aguisanda, PO2 Rodel Pilapil, PO1 Julius Patac, PO3 Marcelo Cometa,
SPO1 Richard Ermac, PO1 Dennis Malinao and PO3 Ernesto Pepito.

The seven will be subjected to preliminary investigation, beginning
with the issuance of an anti-graft office order requiring the
submission of counter-affidavits.

It was these seven cops, Deniega said, who took her and Hiram Godinez,
her live-in partner, into custody last Oct. 7. The couple were
released only after giving the cops cash.

A separate criminal complaint was filed against Perez, the
Conso-lacion Police Station's unofficial handyman, before the Office
of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor.

The charge against him has been elevated to the Regional Trial Court,
but he will remain under NBI custody. He has volunteered to testify
against his former patrons.

Deniega, in her affidavit before the NBI, alleged that she and Godinez
paid the cops P190,000 before last Thursday's payoff.

That amount, she said, excludes P39,000 cash that the police allegedly
took when they were arrested.

She alleged that they paid P70,000 a day after their Oct. 7 arrest, so
the cops would release her and downgrade the charge against Godinez to
drug abuse, not trafficking.

Deniega alleged again that they paid P120,000 more to the police after
being told that they'd take care of Hiram's bail.

A drug use case has been filed against Godinez. He was released on
P50,000 bail.

Last Thursday's operation was hatched after she approached the NBI for
help because Aguisanda allegedly called her up again and asked for
P10,000 in exchange for the motorcycle that they seized from the two
during their Oct. 7 arrest. 
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