Drug addict in police uniform fools probers

Police officials were red in the face after a man they presented to media earlier as a Quezon City cop and arrested for sniffing shabu in Caloocan yesterday, later turned out to be a fake.

Chief Inspector Bartolome Tarnate, Northern Police District Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group (DAID-SOTG) chief, said his men, PO3s Joel Borda and Reynante Mananghaya, earlier arrested last Tuesday suspect Virgilio de Leon Sayanan alias PO1 Ronaldo Flores.

Sayanan was nabbed at around 1 p.m. together with his companion Florencio Maranan, who gave their address at Libis Espina, Caloocan City.

Seized from the suspects were a plastic sachet of shabu and drug-sniffing paraphernalia.

Tarnate said Sayanan, in full police uniform, fooled investigators by first giving his name as PO1 Ronaldo Santos and later on as PO2 Ronaldo Flores while claiming to be a member of the Quezon City Police District.

They later noticed that Sayanan also sported a badge used by organic personnel of the Western Police District, now Manila Police District.

Tarnate, who sought verification on the status of the suspect, said they got full confirmation of Sayanan’s charade after he received a call from the Galas police station in Quezon City that they indeed have a police officer, in active duty, by the same name but of a rank higher (PO2 Ronaldo Flores) and that he was with them at the time the crime was committed and the suspect arrested.

The officer said they later learned that Sayanan used to be a batchmate of the real PO2 Flores about six years ago, but dismally failed to make the grade.

Sayanan told probers he had been posing as a cop for the last six years.

Tarnate said Sayanan, aside from getting charged with illegal possession and use of illegal drugs, has also been slapped with usurpation of authority and concealing identity and is now detained. – With Pete Laude