MANILA, Philippines - Eight of the 10 suspects named in the EDSA “hulidap” or extort-kidnap case are now in custody after five more police officers surrendered, an official said yesterday.
Police Officers 2 Weavin Masa, Ebonn Decatoria, Mark de Paz, and Jerome Datinguinoo were fetched from the intersection of EDSA and Ayala Avenue yesterday afternoon, said Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano.
Senior Police Officer 1 Ramil Hachero was fetched in Cavite on Wednesday afternoon, said Chief Inspector Rodel Marcelo.
With their surrender, only Senior Inspector Oliver Villanueva and dismissed Inspector Marco Polo Estrera remain at large, Albano said.
Chief Inspector Joseph De Vera was first to be arrested on Sunday, while Police Officer 2 Jonathan Rodriguez was taken into custody on Monday afternoon.
De Vera, Villanueva, Masa, Decatoria, De Paz, Datinguinoo, and Hachero all belonged to the QCPD Station 1. Rodriguez belonged to the QCPD’s Public Safety Battalion.
Senior Inspector Allan Emlano, who had been absent without leave from the Northern Police District (NPD), surrendered Wednesday.
Pep talk
National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Carmelo Valmoria visited QCPD Station 1 in La Loma yesterday to give a “pep talk” and boost the morale of the police officers there.
He told them that rogue policemen are just “a small percentage” of the police force. Of the 10 police officers implicated in the controversy, eight were from the QCPD Station 1.
De Vera, the deputy station commander, was arrested at the station during a surprise visit by Valmora Sunday morning.
Villanueva heads the station’s intelligence and investigation branch.
Albano has designated Superintendent Dionisio Bartolome to take over command of the station, which Albano said was one of the better performing stations in Quezon City.
The nine policemen, as well as Estrera and two still unidentified persons, were charged with brigandage and kidnapping with serious illegal detention with the Mandaluyong prosecutor’s office.
A question of time
Chief Inspector Carlos Dalig, who heads the Malabon police’s investigation unit, told The STAR that Emlano was indeed at his office on the afternoon of Sept. 1, when the supposed extort-kidnap reportedly happened.
Dalig said Emlano was at his office to check on his case since he is Emlano’s summary hearing officer. Emlano earlier claimed that he could not have been involved in the hulidap as he was in Malabon working on his reinstatement with the NPD.
Emlano “came here to check on the status of his case but I cannot remember exactly what time,” he said.
A photo of the incident, uploaded by a Twitter user, indicated that it happened at around 2:45 p.m.
Drugs, motorcycles
A source at the NPD said Emlano became chief of the Caloocan police’s anti-car theft unit in 2008 and was linked to drug cases in 2010. There were no records to show that he was charged for any criminal involvement or misconduct.
A native of Misamis Oriental, Emlano graduated from the Ateneo de Cagayan Xavier University in 1997 and joined the Philippine National Police Academy the following year. He is a member of PNPA Class 2001, like some of the other policemen accused in the EDSA hulidap.
The source said Emlano used a motorcycle while he was with the NPD, but added that they never saw him drive a car.
Rodriguez said he and Emlano were driving separate motorcycles when they staged the extort-kidnap. He said Emlano drove the Toyota Fortuner of victims Samanodin Abdulgafur and Camal Mama.
Emlano denied knowing Rodriguez and how to drive a car. – With Rey Galupo, Non Alquitran