CAMP B/GEN OSCAR M. FLORENDO, La Union – The No. 2 most wanted person in Pangasinan, who is facing charges of statutory rape, was arrested the other day in his hiding place by the joint elements of the 3rd Company, Regional Mobile Group 1 (RMG1) headed by Senior Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo and the Cagayan Police Provincial Office in Cagayan. Borromeo reported to Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, director of Police Regional Office 1, that the suspect was identified as Roel Zamora Sarmiento, 25 years old, married and a native of Barangay San Juan, Umingan, Pangasinan. He was arrested based on a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Ulysses Butuyan, presiding judge of Branch 51, First Judicial Region, Tayug, Pangasinan.
Sarmiento was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl sometime in 1998 docketed under Criminal Case No. 2281-87 and went into hiding for about eight years. He was listed number two top most wanted in Pangasinan with a reward of P75,000 based on a DILG memorandum circular dated March 13, 2002.
Bataoil commended the police operatives for the arrest of Sarmiento. He encouraged all policemen to further strengthen their campaign against criminal elements.
— Myds Supnad