NPD cops awarded PNP medal of merit

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has conferred the Philippine National Police (PNP) medal of merit on the Northern Police District-District Police Intelligence Unit (NPD-DPIU) for arresting one of northern Metro Manila’s most notorious criminals last year.

In a ceremony last week at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, NCRPO chief Director Geary Barias awarded the Medalya ng Kagalingan to NPD-DPIU chief Superintendent Reynaldo Orante and his men: Senior Police Officer 4 Rodrigo Torio, PO3 Rolando Domingo, PO3 Giovanni Fuentes, PO2 Noel Roxas and PO2 Roy Anthony Oropesa.

Orante’s men were responsible for the arrest of Jorge de Jesus, also known as Jorge Tabora and “Boy Demonyo,” who had been wanted by the police for murder, frustrated murder, homicide, attempted homicide, and serious physical injury cases in different courts in Metro Manila.

De Jesus was also the prime suspect in the shooting of Tiktik reporter Roger Panizal two years ago in Valenzuela City.

“De Jesus was very elusive, which based on our record, has at least seven warrants of arrest for a string of criminal charges,” Orante said.

When police started to hunt him down, De Jesus evaded them by hiding in different places. He was traced to Bulacan, but eluded arrest and transferred to Tondo, Manila. De Jesus again moved to Antipolo, Rizal and then to Quezon and Cavite provinces.

De Jesus then fled to Davao, where he was accused of killing the brother of a ranking Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officer by mistake.

He returned to Manila and was arrested at a bar in Ermita.

Former NPD chief Director Leopoldo Bataoil, now the PNP’s community relations head, gave P50,000 to the tipster who helped the police catch De Jesus. – Pete Laude