(Photos courtesy of IMEG)
MANILA – A police commander and his civilian cohort were arrested for extortion by operatives from the anti-scalawag unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Caloocan on Monday.
PNP-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) director, Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee, identified the arrested suspects as Major Celso M. Sevilla, chief of the Caloocan Police Community Precinct (PCP) 10, and civilian Nestor Rivera.
Sevilla was arrested and disarmed shortly after Rivera received PHP300 in marked bills from a complainant and turned it over to him in an entrapment operation inside the police station.
Meanwhile, a third suspect identified as Cpl. Albert N. Cruz remains at-large.
The operation stemmed from the alleged involvement of Sevilla and Cruz in a massive protection racket in their area where they demand money from gasoline vendors in exchange for their unhampered business operation.
“We have arrested another police officer accused of extortion in line with our continuing implementation of Gen. (Archie) Gamboa’s directive to go after rogues in uniform regardless of their rank and stature. We assure the public too that we will immediately and properly act on all complaints against erring police officers and men being forwarded to us,” Lee said.
Aside from criminal charges, administrative charges are also set to be filed against Sevilla. (PNA)
