Court acquits two cops of robbery

Two Cebu City policemen accused of extorting money from the relatives of a suspected drug pusher in exchange for the suspect's release were acquitted by the court yesterday because the case filed against them was wrong.

Regional Trial Court executive judge Simeon Dumdum Jr. said the correct charges to be filed against SP01 Edgar Cabiluna and SP01 Emilio Abellar is direct bribery and not robbery because the two policemen did not use force in taking the money as claimed by their arresting officers.

Cabiluna and Abellar, who used to be with the Mambaling police station, were accused of demanding money from Rosalie Mabala, sister in-law of Lilibeth Mabala who was arrested by the two policemen in a buy-bust operation in Tangke, Talisay on November 5, 1997.

Although Tangke, Talisay is already outside the jurisdiction of the Mambaling police station, Cabiluna and Abellar claimed that they arrested Mabala while on the act of selling a pack of shabu to a poseur buyer. The pack of shabu however reportedly got lost when Mabala resisted arrest.

The two policemen brought Mabala to the Mambaling police station and when her sister in-law visited her there hours later, Cabiluna and Abellar told her to produce P10,000 in exchange for the release of the suspect.

Rosalie and her mother in-law negotiated for P5,000 and the two policemen reportedly accepted, but since they only have P4,000 that time they asked Abellar and Cabiluna to allow them to look for the P1,000.

Rosalie then coordinated with the Regional Intelligence (R2) unit of the Police Regional Office-7 and an entrapment operation against Abellar and Cabiluna was hatched, resulting to the arrest of Abellar.

Rosalie, however, insisted it was Cabiluna who received the money, and, although he was not arrested during the entrapment operations, the station commander of the Mambaling police surrendered Cabiluna to authorities.

Cabiluna was found positive of ultra-violet powder when he was subjected to a laboratory test that proved it was him who received the marked money.

The court ruled that Cabiluna and Abellar could not be convicted of robbery because the prosecution failed to prove that the two policemen used force and violence in taking the money.

Dumdum instructed the clerk of court to furnish copies of the decision to the city prosecutors' office and the Ombudsman for the military so that the case will be reevaluated and a proper case may be filed against the two policemen. - Rene U. Borromeo