Extorting NPA leader turns out to be a former soldier

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan — The Armed Forces’ Scout Ranger regiment was formed 50 years ago to be a highly mobile force capable of infiltrating and hitting rebel territories deep in the jungles.

But when Rodilito Cusipag, a former Scout Ranger and alleged leader of an extortion syndicate, tried slithery tactics — including posing as a New People’s Army (NPA) commander — to extort money from a businesswoman in this province over the weekend, he ended up in the hands of authorities instead.

Police here caught Cusipag receiving P800,000 from his would-be victim, Chary Raquiño, the other day.

Superintendent Rodrigo de Gracia, this city’s police chief, said Raquiño received a demand letter early this month from a certain Kumander Marco, who introduced himself as a high-ranking leader of the NPA’s Northern Luzon Command.

The letter ordered her to set aside P800,000, several sacks of rice, medicine and groceries as part of her "revolutionary tax" to the NPA.

Raquiño agreed to prepare the goods and cash which Kumander Marco and his men would pick up over the weekend at her residence in Barangay Kinali, Gonzaga town, some 90 kilometers from this city.

Before the agreed date, however, Raquiño brought the matter to the attention of De Gracia who immediately instructed his men, led by Superintendent Alexander Rafael, chief of the first provincial mobile group, to set up an entrapment.

Policemen, who posed as house helpers, were able to collar Kumander Marco when he was about to receive the money from Raquiño.

However, his cohorts, who served as lookouts, were able to escape.

During interrogation, Kumander Marco admitted that he was actually Cusipag, a dismissed Army soldier.

Cusipag is now detained at the city jail here while authorities are still hunting down his cohorts.