EDSA operation: ‘Bangketa,’ not ‘hulidap’

MANILA, Philippines - While the term “hulidap” has been repeatedly used to refer to the infamous case of gun-toting policemen along EDSA, is it possible that it was a more complicated case of police officers extorting money from suspects arrested in a legitimate operation?

Was it a case of what is commonly referred to in police circles as “bangketa”?

The term “hulidap” – a contraction of the words “huli” (arrest) and “holdap” (robbery-holdup) – has been conveniently used to describe the case of 10 police officers, one of them dismissed from the service, tagged in the EDSA brigandage case.

But pronouncements by top police officials hint at a different picture – the possibility that the complainants in the case were picked up during a legitimate police operation.

Case fixing

In a recent interview, Metro Manila police chief Director Carmelo Valmoria said among the things he was looking into was the possibility that the Edsa robbery-abduction was a police operation that was “fixed” on the sidewalk.

In police parlance, this is tagged as “bangketa” or when a case is not pursued against the suspects and instead “fixed” outside legal means.

Based on accounts of the two men, who stood as complainants in the case, they were waylaid and snatched from their sport utility vehicle (SUV) along EDSA on Sept. 1. They claimed they were even brought to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 1 in La Loma.

But the complainants’ arrival in the police station was not recorded in the police blotter, according to QCPD director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano.

Any person, whether considered a suspect or who will just be the subject of verification, will have to have his or her name written in the blotter as having been “brought in” by the policemen.

Even Albano’s remarks to QCPD Station 1 policemen during his and Valmoria’s visit on Thursday hinted of the possibility of a case of “bangketa.”

He reminded his men to maintain the integrity of their operations. Albano warned them: “Huwag kayong magba-bangketa ng kaso (Don’t fix cases).”

Money matters

In particular, Valmoria pointed out the P2 million inside the SUV that carried Samanodin Abdulgafur and Camal Mama on Sept. 1.

Abdulgafur claimed in his affidavit that the P2 million was supposed to be for payment for “equipment” being purchased by his boss.

He claimed they were already in Bac-laran that day waiting for the person transacting with his boss, when he received a call from a woman, Almira Salic, who was his neighbor in Marawi.

Even Abdulgafur was suspicious of the timing of the call, since he had not heard from Salic for more than a decade before that call. But the woman wanted to meet Abdulgafur at SM North Edsa.

It was when Abdulgafur and Mama were moving along EDSA as they drove from Quezon City back to Parañaque when they were waylaid and blocked by the armed men.

Police officials had noted that the two men had maintained their peace and did not report the incident, surfacing only after police investigators traced them after a photo of the incident went viral on social media. They claimed they were threatened by the accused police officers that they would be killed if they spoke.

Valmoria even called on the woman to come forward to shed light on the matter, especially following claims she was the one who allegedly tipped off the accused policemen about the P2 million that Abdulgafur and Mama were carrying.