3 more cops to be questioned

MANILA, Philippines –  Three more Manila Police District (MPD) officers are under investigation in connection with the missing P10.6-million ransom, part of the P15 million paid by a Malaysian businessman who was kidnapped earlier this month.

MPD director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla said Superintendent Felipe Cazon Jr., former MPD Station 5 commander; Chief Inspector Virgilio Bag-It, deputy chief of MPD Station 5; and Senior Inspector Elmer Vergara, currently assigned at the MPD Station 7 and formerly of the Police Community Precinct (PCP) in Intramuros, will be asked to “shed light” on the case.

“They are not suspects. Yes, they are being investigated, but only to shed light on the matter,” Rongavilla said in a phone interview with The STAR.

Cazon, Bag-It and Vergara were present during a raid in which the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping was arrested in a hotel room and the ransom recovered.

Five criminal charges were filed Wednesday night against five policemen accused of “pocketing” P10.6 million (not P12.1 million as earlier reported) of the P15 million (not P16.3 million) of the ransom money paid by the Malaysian junkshop owner kidnapped last March 7.

Senior Inspector Peter Nerviza, Senior Police Officer 3 Ernesto Peralta, Police Officers 3 Mike Ongpauco and Jefferson Britanico, and PO1 Rommel Ocampo face charges of qualified theft, malversation, accessories to kidnap for ransom with aggravating circumstance of public position and abuse of confidence, anti-graft and corrupt practices act, and obstruction of justice. They were brought to the Manila City Hall for inquest Wednesday night under heavy guard, after which they were detained at the MPD integrated jail.

“Each of the charge is a non-bailable offense. It is up to the inquest fiscal to determine the appropriate charges,” Rongavilla said.

MPD intelligence chief Superintendent Ernesto Fojas Jr., who was tasked by Rongavilla to account for the five policemen’s service firearms, said Britanico’s and Peralta’s guns will be turned over to him by their relatives today.

As for the service firearms of Nerviza, Ongpauco and Ocampo, Fojas secured a court order to open their respective lockers at the MPD Station 5 in Ermita, where they reportedly left their firearms. The five policemen were unarmed when they surrendered to Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim Monday morning after he issued a shoot-to-kill order against them.

Rongavilla believes the five policemen, if ever they have a hand in the alleged loss of the P10.6 million, acted on their own.

Footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera installed at the Riviera Mansion, where alleged mastermind Marlon Lopera was arrested, showed the five policemen having difficulty carrying a suitcase reportedly containing the ransom.

Nerviza maintains he and his men did not keep any portion of the ransom, but they have evidence to prove that the 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.

MPD general assignment section head Chief Inspector Marcelo Reyes, who filed the complaint before the prosecutor’s office, said the five policemen left the Riviera Mansion through the hotel’s back door without informing the members of the two other police back-up teams.