'Makati cops don't need to extort from scavengers'

Manila, Philippines - Allegations that police officers from Police Community Precinct (PCP) 5 in Makati City extort money from scavengers are simply hard to believe, the officer-in-charge of the Makati police said yesterday.

“Personally, I don’t think such a thing would even be possible. Makati policemen receive allowances from the city government. It is easy for the scavengers to make those kinds of allegations against the police officers of PCP 5. If such a thing was happening, why did they not file any complaint with the barangay?” Superintendent Jaime Santos said in a phone interview.

Santos is temporarily in command of the Makati police while Senior Superintendent Froilan Bonifacio is on official leave.

According to scavengers interviewed by The STAR, police officers from PCP 5 would visit an abandoned building in Barangay San Antonio every afternoon to confiscate their tools and gathered scrap metal, for which the lawmen would demand P500.

But while he dismissed such allegations, Santos said the Makati police will still look deeper into the allegation as well as into the case of 13-year-old Christian Serrano, who was shot dead while scavenging for scrap metal at the abandoned building. Witnesses later tagged former PCP 5 commander, Chief Inspector Angelo Germinal as the one who shot Serrano once in the back.

His parents said Serrano dreamed of becoming a policeman and would have been a second year high school student when classes start next month.

Germinal and two other PCP 5 policemen involved in the incident, later identified as PO3 Robert Rinion and PO1 Nicolas Apostol Jr., went into hiding but later surrendered to the Southern Police District. The three police officers are now facing administrative charges and a murder case.