NCRPO nabs 5 cops in drug bust

Five policemen from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), a dismissed policeman and two others were arrested last Tuesday by agents of the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) during a drug buy-bust operation involving two kilos of shabu worth P4.6 million.

The five policemen initially shot at the arresting officers but they surrendered after they were outnumbered and the NCRPO agents identified themselves as police officers.

"They (suspects) opened fire at my men. But they surrendered when our raiders introduced themselves as policemen," said Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., head of the NCRPO’s Regional Investigation and Detective Management (RIDM).

NCRPO chief Director Reynaldo Varilla identified the suspects as Senior Police Officer 2 Rodolfo Estores, PO2 Cyril Digusen, PO2 Darwin Salvador and PO2 Jay Calderon, and PO1 Rolando Isidro, all assigned at the Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) of the QCPD.

The five policemen, along with a dismissed policeman Elmer Ramos and civilians Darwin Mijares and Marcelo Montero are now detained at the headquarters of the NCRPO’s Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (RAIDSOTF) in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.

The QC policemen claimed they were conducting an operation against bank robbery suspects when the NCRPO raiders pounced on them.

They, however, could not explain the presence of the two kilos of shabu in their possession.

QCPD director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula said he would cooperate fully with the NCRPO’s investigation of his men.

"I will not condone the illegal activities of my men. We will support the NCRPO’s investigation by providing them necessary documents needed," Gatdula told The STAR.

For the past two days, an informant has been in contact with a big-time pusher negotiating the sale of two kilos of shabu for P2.3 million a kilo.

"My informant agreed to hand over the money in two instances which were called off in the last minute by the shabu source," said Rojas, who is the concurrent head of the RAIDSOTF.

At around 1:30 p.m. last Tuesday, the two groups agreed to meet at a fastfood restaurant along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City.

Three teams of NCRPO agents waited for the suspects near the restaurant. The suspects later arrived on board a Nissan Sentra, said Rojas.

After Ramos handed over the shabu, which was neatly-packed in a bag, to a police undercover agent, in exchange for P4.6 million "boodle" or fake money, the NCRPO agents tried to arrest the suspects.

Rojas, the five policemen opened fire at the arresting policemen, but nobody was hit.

"They fired at least six shots at us," said Rojas, adding that the five policemen surrendered after the raiders properly introduced themselves as law enforcers. The raiders recovered two kilos of shabu and the "boodle money." They also disarmed the suspects of six .45 caliber pistols and a 9mm Beretta pistol.

Rojas sent the recovered shabu to the crime laboratory of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame for examination.

He said the result of the crime laboratory examination would help them determine what charges are to be filed against the suspects.

Rojas said they would also file grave misconduct charges against the suspests.

Meanwhile, PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon denied that one of the arrested policemen, PO2 Jay Calderon, was related to him.

PO2 Calderon was allegeldy claiming that he is a distant relative of the PNP chief, who clarified that the suspect is not related to him but they came from the same province of Nueva Ecija. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe