City Hall official arrested for extortion

A City Hall official was arrested by the Manila police while in the act of extorting protection money from vendors in an entrapment operation at a public market in Sampaloc, Manila Tuesday evening.

Jerico Serrano, 33, City Hall’s public service assistant for District 4 (Sampaloc), also tried to intimidate arresting policemen by claiming that he is an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation, while at the same time flashing an NBI badge and ID. However, due to the recovery of marked money in his possession he was booked for robbery-extortion and violation of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.

According to Senior Inspector Marcelo Reyes, chief of the investigation and follow-up branch of the District Special Police Unit (DSPU), he was informed by Department of Public Services (DPS) chief Carlos Baltazar of the illegal activities of a certain “Jerico” who was reportedly using his name to collect protection money from market vendors.

Baltazar also sent three vendors to the DSPU to corroborate the complaints. The vendors confirmed that Jerico has been collecting P400 from them weekly in exchange for their continued vending in the Trabajo market in Sampaloc.

They said Jerico has increased his collection to P600 per week starting October.

Reyes immediately set up an entrapment operation and prepared P400 marked bills.

At around 6 p.m. a man arrived on board a motorcycle and proceeded to the complainants’ vending area. After receiving the marked money, the suspect was apprehended by undercover policemen posing themselves as vendors. The suspect, who turned out to be Serrano, was positively identified by market vendors as the one who has been collecting money from them for the past four years.

Reyes said verification is now ongoing with the NBI to determine if Serrano is an active member of the agency.

“We will be filing additional charges of usurpation of authority if it can be proven that the suspect is a fake NBI agent,” Reyes said. – Nestor Etolle