Cop In Edsa Robbery Faces Inquest; Netizen Praised

[Malcolm Graham]

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/09/09/14/cop-edsa-robbery-faces-inquest-netizen-praised

 

 

MANILA - A police officer linked to the EDSA kidnap-extortion incident underwent inquest proceedings Tuesday for highway robbery, serious illegal detention and kidnapping charges. An unnamed netizen also won praise for uploading the original photo that helped police crack the case.

A radio DZMM report said PO2 Jonathan Rodriguez faced inquest proceedings before the Mandaluyong City Prosecutors' Office Tuesday morning for charges of brigandage or highway robbery, serious illegal detention and kidnapping.

Rodriguez was handcuffed and his face was covered during the inquest.

Victims of the kidnap-extortion incident also showed up at the inquest despite fear of reprisal. The two refused to give a statement since they could not speak fluent Tagalog.

A relative and the victims' lawyer, Atty. Jinky Dimaporo, said they will pursue the charges.

Dimaporo also praised the original netizen who uploaded the photo of the kidnap-extortion incident, saying the case would not have been pursued without the photo.

Relatives of the victims said they want to meet the original uploader so they could give their thanks in person.

The Eastern Police District earlier identified 9 suspects in the September 1 daylight robbery on EDSA, a photo of which went viral in social media.

EPD director Chief Supt. Abelardo Villacorta said the suspects surrounded a Toyota Fortuner on EDSA, commandeered the vehicle and stole P2 million cash from the victims. He said the cash was supposed to be used to purchase a payloader for a municipality in Lanao del Sur.

The victims said they were detained by the suspects and were forced to give up their ATMs.

Villacorta said the kidnapping was traced to Chief Inspector and La Loma station deputy commander Joseph de Vera after one of the vehicles in the kidnap-extortion turned out to be his.

De Vera, who has been placed under arrest and subjected to inquest proceedings, said the incident on EDSA was a legitimate police operation against a drug suspect.

However, no record of the operation was placed in the police blotter. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency also denied that the suspected police officers coordinated with them on any alleged operation.

Seven suspects - Senior Insp. Oliver Villanueva, SPO1 Ramil Hachero, PO2 Weavin Masa, PO2 Mark de Paz, PO2 Jerome Datinguinoo, PO2 Ebonn Decatoria and dismissed police officer Marco Polo Estrera - are still at large.

[Call me bubba]

i too had followed the story from the 1st, seem very QUIET when NO one reported anything,

 here is the latest,

 

 

what i dont understand and still cant fathom why ,, WHY in the XXXX would anyone carry so much money?

 

http://www.manilatimes.net/edsa-kidnap-victims-robbed-atm-cards/125521/

 

 

 

ASIDE from taking P2-million cash from the two employees they robbed along Edsa, policemen also forced the victims to withdraw cash from their personal bank accounts, investigators learned on Tuesday.

The victims, Ustadz Samanodin Abdulgafur and Camal Mama,

surfaced on the same day and told the probers that after they were taken to the La Loma Police Station in Quezon City

, the policemen took their ATM cards and forced them to withdraw money from their bank accounts.

Mama withdrew P30,000 while Abdulgafur withdrew P33,000. The policemen also took the P56,000 cash in the possession of Abdulgafur, they said.

They were detained at the police station for seven hours.

 

When shown pictures of members of the La Loma Police Station, the victims identified Chief Insp. Joseph de Vera; Sr. Police Officer 1 Ramil Hachero; Police Officers 2 (PO2) Ebonn Decatoria and Weavin Masa; and former Police Inspector Marco Polo Aranas Estrera as the policemen behind their kidnapping.

 

Abdulgafur and Mama were employees of a businessman engaged in construction. They said the P2- million cash they were carrying was for the purchase of a heavy equipment in Subic, Zambales.

 

The Special Investigation Task Group created by Chief Supt. Abelardo Villacorta, chief of the Eastern Police District, traced the ownership of a Honda Civic (ZJB 149) to Marco Polo Estrera, a dismissed police officer.

Of the suspects, only de Vera and PO2 Jonathan Rodriguez have been arrested.
Villacorta said de Vera admitted to his participation in the robbery and pointed to Senior Insp. Oliver Villanueva, Estrera, Hachero, Decatoria, Masa, PO2 Jerome Datinguinoo, PO2 Mark Depaz and Rodriguez as his cohorts. They are all assigned to the La Loma Police Station 1.

Rodriguez underwent inquest proceedings also on Tuesday. He was charged with robbery, kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

Another police officer, Senior Inspector Allan Emlano, and two “John Does” were included in the list of suspects. Villacorta said similar charges were filed against the three suspects who are at large.

 

More charges

Quezon City Police District Director Chief Supt. Richard Albano also on Tuesday vowed to file administrative charges against all policemen involved in the crime.

“We will dig deeper into their previous activities. Hindi lang ito malamang. Saan nanggaling ang mga ito [This kidnapping must not be the only one that they have done. Where did these people come from]?” Albano fumed.

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd said he is considering offering a reward to speed up the capture of the policemen being hunted by authorities.

“We gave them a uniform and a badge, authority, a gun and radio and they used it for a crime. This will not be tolerated,” he said.

But Malacañang does not consider the case a big blow to the PNP, saying rogue policemen compose a minority in the police force.

Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said this small number of rogue police officers should not tarnish the image of the entire police organization.

“Ang patakaran namang pinapairal dito ay ‘yung zero tolerance laban sa mga tinaguriang rogue cops [We are implementing a zero-tolerance policy for so-called rogue cops],” Coloma said in a news conference.

 

 

“What would be a major blow is if there is no effort on the part of its leadership to clean up its ranks. What would be a major blow is if there would be a situation where the PNP is not doing its duty,” he added.

Coloma noted that President Benigno Aquino 3rd had directed PNP chief Alan Purisima to closely monitor the situation.

 

 

 here are 2 other links to the story,

http://www.manilatimes.net/breaking_news/number-suspects-edsa-kidnapping-rises-12-police/

 

http://www.manilatimes.net/breaking_news/twitter-helps-catch-rogue-philippine-police-robbery/

 

Rogue policemen who staged an audacious robbery on one of the Philippines’ busiest roads have been exposed by a photo of their crime that went viral on Twitter, authorities said on Tuesday.

Social media-fuelled anger over the image, apparently taken by a motorist of gun-wielding men surrounding a van in daylight last week, forced law-enforcers into a manhunt that led to some of their own.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Pittman apartments Sgn

[jon1]

Here is an update

 

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2014/09/09/police-exec-sacked-over-edsa-gun-poking-incident-364517 

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

MANILA -- The station commander of Quezon City Police District's (QCPD) station 1 in La Loma has, Quezon City, has been relieved from his post after eight of his men were involved in a robbery and abduction incident at the Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (Edsa) in Mandaluyong City.

QCPD chief Richard Albano ordered the relief of Superintendent Osmundo de Guzman for his failure to discipline his men and for not being able to prevent the crime perpetrated by his subordinates.

"Alam man niya o hindi 'yung mga aktibidades na ganoon ng tao niya, it's his responsibility as the station commander," he said.

On September 1, a photo of a gun-poking incident on the southbound lane of Edsa became viral on social media after a concerned citizen posted it, forcing authorities to launch an investigation.

The Eastern Police District (EPD) said earlier that identifying if the incident was a case of carjacking, kidnapping or a legitimate police operation has been a challenged to them since they have not received any report from any one and they only have a photo, which is poor in quality, as the focus of their investigation.

However, through the photo, they were able to identify the license plate of the vehicles involved in the incident and found out that active and inactive members of the PNP owned all the vehicles.

The black Toyota Fortuner, which blocked the way of the two victims on-board a sports utility vehicle (SUV) is owned by Senior Inspector Oliver Villanueva while the silver-gray Toyota Hi-Ace van and the blue Honda Civic, which was seen on the viral photo, are owned by Chief Inspector Joseph de Vera and former Inspector Marco Polo Estrera, respectively.

De Vera was the La Loma station deputy commander while Estrera is a dismissed police officer.

On September 6, after a few days of negotiation, police were able to convinced the victims namely Ustadz Samanodin Abdul Gafur and Camal Mama to cooperate with authorities in the ongoing investigation.

They said they were brought by the suspects at the La Loma police station and told them to portray as policemen to avoid being questioned.

"They said they were brought back and forth to the second and first floor of the building without knowing what it was for and released them around 9 p.m. of the same day with the Fortuner along Edsa," EPD chief Abelardo Villacorta said.

The victims said they saw De Vera at the police station.

De Vera has initially denied having any knowledge of the incident but later on admitted his involvement in it as he wrote down on a piece of paper the names of his alleged cohorts and their roles.

Tagged were Villanueva, the driver of the black Toyota Fortuner SUV; Senior Police Officer 1 Ramil Hachero, the man in green in the viral photo who was pointing his gun to the victims; Police Officers (PO) 2 Weavin Masa, Mark de Paz, Jerome Datinguinoo, and Ebonn Decatoria who were allegedly responsible for the discreet detention of the victims in support of PO2 Jonathan Rodriguez and Estrera, who was the driver of the blue car, which was also caught in photo.

The suspects were active personnel of the La Loma police station.

Aside from the P2 million, which was intended for the acquisition of a heavy equipment for Gafur and Mama's boss who is an owner of a construction firm in Mindanao, the suspects also took the money from the victim's ATM accounts and pockets amounting to more than P100,000.

De Vera was immediately held under the custody of the EPD, Rodriguez was arrested in a follow-up operation last Monday while the seven others are still a subject of an ongoing manhunt operation.

"Walang lugar sa PNP 'yung mga ganitong klase na hindi mo alam kung saan nanggaling na lupalop na sinisira at dinudumihan ang uniporme ng kapwa nila mga pulis," Albano said.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Carmelo Valmoria said that it is such a pain arresting their colleagues "but if it is the price they have to pay, they will not think twice."

"Mahirap kasi kapwa mo naka-uniporme pero hindi sila karapat-dapat magsuot ng ganitong uniporme kung ganiyan ang kanilang gawain, dapat lang na maalis na sila," he said. (Sunnex)

 

[Malcolm Graham]

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/636810/pnp-urged-to-set-up-netizens-desk-for-photos-videos-of-criminal-acts

 

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police should set up a system that will allow netizens to post photos or videos of crimes being committed, a lawmaker at the House of Representatives said Wednesday.

Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano said the Edsa robbery-abduction on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue by 12 suspects, including 10 policemen, early this September would have gone unnoticed if not for a photo of the incident posted by a netizen on Twitter and which went viral.

“Kung walang nag-upload, wala ring maiimbestigahan,” said Alejano who, along with his colleagues thanked the netizen.

(If no one uploaded, then there would have been no investigation.)

“(The netizens) are the ones on the ground,” Alejano said.

Chief Superintendent Abelardo Villacorta, Eastern Police District chief, told Wednesday’s public order and safety committee investigation of the September 1 incident that the netizen was a female who told the police she would deactivate her account for her personal safety.

Negros Occidental Representative Jeffrey Ferrer, committee chairman, said the netizen’s action of uploading the photo was a “participation of the community” as he and Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia thanked her.

Ten policemen, mostly from La Loma police station, were tagged in the P2 milliom robbery along Edsa. The photo showed gun-wielding men surrounding aVAN IN broad day light. The victims have surfaced and accused members of the La Loma police as being behind the robbery.

One of the suspects, Chief Inspector Joseph De Vera, admitted that he was in the reported incident but claimed it was an anti-drug operation.

On Early Wednesday, Senior Inspector Allan Emlano of the Caloocan City police, surrendered to authorities to deny his involvement.

 

[Steve & Myrlita]

Hopefully the one who was brave enough to take the photo won't be "eliminated".

[Americano]

This story would have never gotten any attention and no one would be arrested if the woman didn't make the picture. Every driver should have front and rear cams to record criminal activity including the Police. For all of those who think the Police are here to serve and protect you should read this story very carefully. Very often the Police are the criminals. In Mindanao the Police are called Crocodiles.  What does that tell you about them?

[Jake]

The link below is from PDI, columnist Ramon Tulfo:

 

There’s only one drastic but surefire way to eliminate the scalawags in the Philippine National Police: Line them up

against the wall and shoot them.

 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/636967/how-to-eliminate-scalawags-in-the-pnp

[Malcolm Graham]

I was wondering how they knew the money was in the vehicle

 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/636962/mystery-woman-tied-to-edsa-robbery

 

NORMINDA Galo is tagged by an ex-antinarcotics agent as the contact of the police officers accused of pulling off the broad daylight abduction-robbery on
Edsa. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

 

MANILA, Philippines–A woman allegedly involved in illegal drug trafficking has ties to two of the police officers—Senior Insp. Oliver Villanueva and dismissed Insp. Marco Polo Estrera—involved in the robbery-abduction incident on Edsa on Sept. 1, said a former officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The woman is a certain Norminda Galo, who operates in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and Lanao del Sur, according to the Inquirer source.

“She is their contact. She provides the information on whom to extort from and abduct, and the team of rogue police officers carry out the mission disguised as a police operation,” said the former PDEA officer, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified in the meantime.

He said that when he learned that there was a woman involved in the Edsa robbery and abduction, he was certain that the woman was none other than Galo.

“It’s their usual modus operandi and they haven’t stopped,” the former PDEA officer said.

Could the woman be the same woman who last spoke with Samanodin Abdul Gafur, one of two men in the white Fortuner that was waylaid and commandeered to the La Loma Police Station in Quezon City?

Jinkee Dimaporo, lawyer for Gafur and Camal Mama, said Amira Salik was the name of the woman given by Gafur.

“But Ustadz is not sure if that is indeed her real name. He added that the woman was with a younger person who was his former neighbor in Lanao del Sur,” Dimaporo told the Inquirer.

Enough info on officers

The source told the Inquirer that the PDEA had enough information linking Galo to Villanueva and Estrera.

“I don’t know if Galo is using another name. But if the victims mentioned Amira Salik, I’m sure that she has a connection to Galo because Estrera and Villanueva’s group would not know who the target would be without a go signal from Galo. That’s how they operate,” he said.

The Eastern Police District (EPD) head, Chief Supt. Abelardo Villacorta, said the district had yet to ascertain the real identity of the woman, noting that given the circumstances of the case, she was considered a suspect.

Negotiation at fast food

“We don’t know her real identity but she had a big role in what happened that day,” Villacorta said.

In October of 2006, the PDEA intercepted and caught the team of Estrera negotiating for the release of six suspected drug pushers at a Jollibee branch on Banawe Street in Quezon City.

Estrera’s group claimed then that it was a legitimate operation but was not able to justify to the then PDEA Director Dionisio Santiago why it brought the suspects to a Jollibee branch rather than to headquarters.

Administrative cases were filed against Estrera and four other police officers.

Case dismissed

The case against the suspected drug pushers were later dismissed by a Quezon City court for technical reasons related to the proof of possession and ownership of the 175 grams of “shabu” presented as evidence against the suspects.

Villanueva was supposed to be part of that team but was unable to join them that night when the suspected pushers were taken from Bulacan and Pampanga.

Hogtied in trunk

“I was angry at the time because we caught them negotiating the release of those they had arrested for P100,000 each, while the [suspected drug pushers] were kept hogtied in the trunk of the vehicles the group used,” Santiago told the Inquirer.

Santiago added that as early as 2006, the PDEA had already been able to establish the connection of some members of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Class of 2001 to kidnapping and robbery extortion activities, Estrera and Villanueva among them.

After that incident in October 2006, PDEA intelligence operatives did surveillance operations to find out more about how the group operated and that was when the agency found out the group of rogue cops’ connection to Galo.

CHR police escorts

Galo was the subject of a surveillance operation of the PDEA but the agency was prevented from pursuing its intelligence operation on Galo when the woman sought the assistance of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in 2009.

Galo was provided police escorts thereafter, some of whom were members of the PNPA Class of 2001 who held positions then in the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force.

“It would appear that after the Mandaluyong incident was exposed the gang belonging to the PNPA Class of 2001 continued with its illegal activities. We exposed it then and it was exposed recently by a brave commuter whose photo of the incident led to the identification of the group behind the brazen robbery-abduction,” Santiago said.

He said he was not making a SWEEPING statement against the PNPA Class of 2001 but based it on his previous experience and encounter with the group.

Same modus operandi

“There are other members of the same class caught employing the same modus operandi—robbery-abduction and extortion disguised as a legitimate police operation. Prove me wrong, I would be gladly proven wrong,” he said.

Ten police officers were identified as those responsible in the robbery-abduction on Sept. 1.

Three are now in police custody—Chief Insp. Joseph de Vera, deputy commander of the La Loma police station in Quezon City; PO2 Jonathan Rodriguez; and Senior Insp. Allan Emlano of the Caloocan Police.

Still at large are Villanueva, Estrera, SPO1 Ramil Hachero, PO2 Weavin Masa, PO2 Mark de Paz, PO2 Jerome Datinguinoo and PO2 Ebonn Decatoria.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/636962/mystery-woman-tied-to-edsa-robbery#ixzz3CywGuzVa 
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

[Jollygoodfellow]

what i dont understand and still cant fathom why ,, WHY in the XXXX would anyone carry so much money?

 

Well they said

 

 

Abdulgafur and Mama were employees of a businessman engaged in construction. They said the P2- million cash they were carrying was for the purchase of a heavy equipment in Subic, Zambales.

 

So I guess that's why.

 

Many moons ago when I worked at a well known finger licking good chicken outlet the takings were collected in plain cars, just any old ordinary car with one plain clothes person to receive the money and take it somewhere so my point is that there are many reasons that large sums of money could be transported.

[Americano]

The link below is from PDI, columnist Ramon Tulfo:

 

There’s only one drastic but surefire way to eliminate the scalawags in the Philippine National Police: Line them up

against the wall and shoot them.

 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/636967/how-to-eliminate-scalawags-in-the-pnp

 

Thanks for the article. I especially like this part:  "At the PNPA, junior cadets are already exposed to corruption when senior cadets order them to “produce money from nowhere.”  Most junior cadets, who come from poor families, beg, steal or borrow from their fellow junior cadets to comply with the illegal order.

So when they graduate from the PNPA, they have fully blossomed into extortionists, thieves or robbers."

 

Sounds like he is saying the PNPA is training young men and women to be criminals. That's easy to believe when you see how much crime they commit.