Mugshot of Pat. Julius Ramos (Photo courtesy of IMEG)
MANILA – Members of the Philippine National Police's (PNP) anti-scalawag unit arrested a police officer for grave coercion and cybercrime offenses in Bulacan early Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Warren de Leon, chief of the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) said Pat. Julius Ramos, who is assigned at the Service Support Division of the PNP Intelligence Group at Camp Crame, was arrested in an entrapment at around 12:30 a.m.
The operation stemmed from the complaint of the suspect's former partner that he threatened to leak their intimate videos on social media if she refuses to meet up with him.
During the arrest, the suspect was caught at a traveler's inn in Barangay Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan together with the complainant.
The suspect offered to delete the naked video of the complainant stored in his cellphone in exchange for sexual intercourse and coerced the complainant to submit to his will.
The suspect will be charged with administrative and criminal charges of grave coercion, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 20212, and the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009.
The police officer is now detained at the IMEG custodial facility at Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Meanwhile, the PNP-Anti Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) reminded the public to be wary in communicating with strangers in dating apps.
This, after ACG members arrested, Jerome Villacorteza a construction worker, in an entrapment operation on Nov. 7 inside a motel located in Mabalacat, Pampanga, on allegations that he demanded a meet-up and sexual intercourse from a victim in exchange for the deletion of their intimate photos and videos.
“ACG would like to remind everyone to be cautious in sharing personal and intimate photos and videos of themselves which might be used against them by some unscrupulous individuals with bad intentions,” ACG chief Brig. Gen. Joel Doria said in a statement.
Investigation showed the complainant met the suspect in an online dating application sometime in June 2022.
After a series of exchanging messages thru the dating app, they became comfortable with each other and eventually shifted their conversation to “WhatsApp” and had a sensual video call.
During the video call, Villacorteza took screenshots of the victim doing their sexual act online.
Sometime in October, the victim decided to end their relationship and eventually blocked the suspect on the dating app. This irked the suspect who eventually changed his profile pic on the dating apps with the illicit photo of the victim to gain her attention.
Subsequently, Villacorteza uploaded the victim’s indecent video to the app's party group which was seen by other account owners.
When the victim confronted the suspect, he demanded a meet-up and sex in exchange for the deletion of the photos and videos which resulted in the arrest of the suspect.
Villacorteza is now facing criminal charges for violations of RA 9262 (Violence Against Women and their Children) and RA 9995 (Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism) both in relation to Section 6 of RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act).
The suspect is currently in the custody of the Mabalacat police station. (PNA)
