Criminal charges filed vs 5 Manila cops

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila Police District filed yesterday criminal and administrative charges against five of its men in connection with the disappearance of at least P10.6 million ransom money paid by a Malaysian kidnap victim.

The five — Senior Inspector Peter Nerviza, Senior Police Officer 3 Ernesto Peralta, Police Officers Mike Ongpauco and Jefferson Britanico and PO1 Rommel Ocampo — are under custodial investigation at the District Headquarters Support Unit, the withholding unit of the MPD for its personnel facing charges. The five policemen surrendered to Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim Monday after a shoot-to-kill order was issued by the mayor.

The five could face either of the three criminal charges being prepared by the legal team of the MPD — syndicated estafa, qualified theft and obstruction of justice, aside from administrative charges, according to MPD director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla.

Syndicated estafa is a non-bailable offense which means that the subject policemen would have to go to jail while their cases are being heard. At the same time, Rongavilla directed his men to seize the service firearms of the five which they reportedly left in their respective homes during their surrender.

Rongavilla also debunked rumors that ranking officials of the MPD have a hand in the alleged loss of the P10.6-million ransom money. “These policemen, if ever they stole the amount, acted on their own. The rumor being spread around by some unscrupulous individuals was meant to cast aspersion on the leadership of the MPD,” Rongavilla said.

He said footages from a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera installed at the Riviera Mansion in Ermita where the alleged mastermind Marlon Lopera was arrested showed the five policemen having a hard time carrying a suitcase reportedly containing the ransom money due to its weight. “Precisely the luggage was full of money, contrary to their report later to their commanding officer that only P4.2 million was recovered,” Rongavilla said.   

Nerviza, however, maintained he and his men did not keep for themselves any portion of the ransom money, but said they have evidence to prove that the ransom money of P10.6 million was divided by the suspects.

He said they were not able to make an inventory of the recovered evidence since they were on follow-up operations to arrest the rest of the suspects.

Moreover, Lim yesterday ordered Rongavilla to place under a lie detector test the five policemen, suspected of stealing more than P10 million in ransom money, as well as the eight suspects in the abduction of a Malaysian trader to determine who was telling the truth.

The order came a day after Peralta, Ongpauco, Britanico, and Ocampo surrendered to the MPD headquarters and showed up at the Manila Mayor’s Office denying allegations that they took the money of Malaysian businessman Eric Sim Chin Tong after the victim’s release.

Lim said the lie detector test will determine whether or not there will be basis for the filing of charges against the five Manila policemen as well as the supposed abductors of Tong. “Pina-subject ko sa lie detector test sila, pati mga suspect. Maski papaano ang lie-detector test makakatulong sa investigation,” Lim said in an interview aired over dzRH radio.

If the policemen would fail the lie detector test, Lim said that the five cops will be charged with qualified theft, syndicated estafa, and obstruction of justice, depending on the outcome of the probe. Lim also said the ball is now in the hands of the investigation team formed by Rongavilla, who assured that the probe will be finished in no time.

Lim said Rongavilla is now faced with the challenge of determining where the missing ransom money went and who is actually telling the truth.

The total ransom money missing is now said to be P10.6 million not P12.1 as earlier reported since the P1.3 million added to the P15-million paid to the kidnapers was allegedly not taken out of the vault.

Before this, Lopera said that the raiding policemen each pocketed money. Lim said one of the issues that need to be clarified was why it took a long time before the luggage containing the money was turned over.