Tabloid reporter caught in extort try

Police nabbed a tabloid reporter for alleged extortion during an entrapment operation in Quiapo, Manila yesterday afternoon.

Eric Enriquez, 37, a reporter of the weekly tabloid Brigada, has reportedly been asking for cash and goods on many occasions from Police Officer 2 Alvin Caramancion in exchange for stopping negative write-ups against him, according to Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula.

Caramancion, detailed at the station’s Motorized Anti-Street Crimes Operatives, earned the ire of Brigada staff when he reportedly took sides with one of the warring stallholders along Quezon Avenue in Quiapo last August. A relative of a stallholder who resented his move has some connections with the Brigada staff, according to Caramancion.

Caramancion said he was even charged with grave threats at the pre-charge investigation unit of the Manila Police District but the charge was dismissed for lack of merit. The case was also filed with the Ombudsman. Since then, Caramancion said Brigada has printed several negative stories against him.

He said Enriquez regularly asks him for cash or wine to stop the negative stories. Yesterday morning, Caramancion said Enriquez called him up asking for a new gun holster for the birthday of Brigada publisher Leo Villan.

Caramancion then decided to tell everything to Sapitula, who ordered an entrapment operation against Enriquez.

Caramancion informed Enriquez that he will give P1,000 to cover the purchase of the holster and that they will meet at a shopping center in Quiapo. When Enriquez got hold of the marked money, police officers arrested him.

Police are preparing to file extortion charges against Enriquez, who is currently detained at the Sta. Cruz police station.