Cops demanded P1.5 M from us – drug suspect

CEBU CITY — A suspected Hong Kong triad member alleged the other day that members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), who arrested him last year, demanded P1.5 million as settlement money so that a drug case would not be filed against him.

Giovanni Gimenez said the CIDG team also demanded the amount so that he would be released, together with his brother Jovan and cousin Victor Ceniza, after they were arrested for illegal drug possession last Sept. 7.

The CIDG arrested the three at the Sugbu Realty Condominiums here for allegedly possessing 337.97 grams of shabu found in the rear of their Starex van.

In an affidavit, Gimenez said that after they were brought to the detective bureau for interrogation, SPO2 Fernando Velarde and PO2 Reynaldo Matillano allegedly asked him to produce P1.5 million "to settle (the case) before things will be recorded in the blotter, and we will be released."

Determined to be released, Gimenez said he contacted people whom he thought could help them. At 10 p.m. of the same day, they managed to raise only P300,000.

When the police realized it was impossible for them to produce P1.5 million, they said they would settle for P500,000, Gimenez alleged.

He added that aside from asking for the money, the CIDG team also allegedly took their personal belongings.

After they failed to produce P500,000 after four days in detention, he said he realized that the police did not intend to release them and were "merely bleeding and extorting" from them. — Freeman News Service