11 cops plead not guilty in 'raid-turned-robbery'

MANILA, Philippines — Eleven former Caloocan police officers yesterday pleaded not guilty to robbery charges as they face trial for allegedly stealing from a businesswoman's house during a drug raid last year.

Team leader Senior Inspector Warren Peralta, and Police Officers 1 Ariel Furio, Jay-R Sabangan, Jaime Natividad, Jay Gabata, Michael Angelo Miguel, Marvin Poblite, Louie Serrano, Sherwin Rivera, Francis Quidic, and Sampang Sampurna II were arraigned at the Caloocan Regional Trial Court Branch 126 after Judge Lorenza Bordios denied their motions to defer their arraignment and for judicial determination of probable cause, citing the Supreme Court guidelines for continuous trial.

Meanwhile, the former police station commander Chief Inspector Timothy Aniway Jr. yesterday posted his P20,000 bail bond after Bordios reduced the prescribed P40,000 bail.

Aniway's arraignment was deferred after he asked the court to remand his case back to the city prosecutor's office for a reinvestigation, claiming he was not notified of the criminal information against him. 

Meanwhile, police informants John Paul "Kingkong" Narrido and Mark Andrada "Pilay" Dizon, who accompanied the police in the alleged illegal raid turned robbery, are at large.

The charges stemmed from the police officers’ alleged illegal entry into the house of Gina Erobas on the night of Sept. 7, 2017 without a search warrant, and carting away P27,000 worth of items, such as a Samsung cellular phone, two wrist watches and P6,000 cash.

While the lawmen said they entered Erobas' house in Tala, Caloocan after receiving to a tip she was involved in drug trade, closed-circuit television footage showed that they lifted the stolen items from the television rack – the cellphone and the two wrist watches – for the informant to stow away in his pockets.

The footage also showed one policemantelling the informant to keep quiet. The lawmen were able to enter the complainant's gate using a bolt cutter.

In indicting the police officers and their assets, the Department of Justice prosecutors said their entry into the house without a search warrant "intruded into the privacy of the complainant and the security of her property" and thus "exceeded the allowable limits of warrantless searches."

"The manner by which the respondents who were then armed entered the house, the forcible removal of the padlock of the gate using a bolt cutter, and once inside the house, the taking of personal belongings of complainant, unmistakably fall within the ambit of robbery," the prosecution said in its indictment.