Tourists ‘robbed’ by WPD patrol

Here’s something for Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon and Metro Manila police Director Edgar Aglipay who vowed last Friday to go after criminal groups preying on tourists.

Two Korean tourists have accused two members of the Western Police District (WPD) Mobile Patrol Unit of allegedly extorting money from them after they failed to show their passports in Malate before dawn yesterday.

Kim Hyun Dur, 30, and Park Yon Yeong, 30, both single and currently staying at Room 1510 of the Aseanwealth Hotel in Leveriza, Malate, Manila filed harassment and extortion complaints with the WPD-General Assignments Section.

Though they failed to get the names of the cops, the foreigners managed to jot down the body number of the WPD mobile car as W-310.

According to the complainants, they had just attended a party at the Century Park Hotel and were walking along Vito Cruz street in Malate on their way to a restaurant when the cops accosted them at around 2 a.m.

They claimed that uniformed policemen alighted from the patrol car and asked for their passports and identification cards.

When they told the cops that they left their travel documents at their hotel room, the policemen accused them of being illegal aliens.

The Koreans were then handcuffed and threatened that they would be detained in the nearest jail. At that juncture, one of the cops demanded P2,000 from the two Koreans but they said they only had P1,000.

The cops took the money and released the Koreans who proceeded to the WPD on United Nations Avenue to file their complaint.– Cecille Suerte Felipe