EDITORIAL — Cops and robbers

The eight policemen had previously been sacked for robbery-extortion, according to published reports. So why were they simply reassigned instead of being grounded pending dismissal proceedings?

With their background, it should be little wonder that the eight members of the Eastern Police District figured in yet another alleged robbery case. The eight are now accused of barging into the home of a Chinese businessman and robbing him of an estimated P75 million in cash and valuables.

The businessman’s house is in Las Piñas, which is outside the jurisdiction of the EPD. The eight went there last Wednesday on the pretext of serving an arrest warrant on the Chinese, who was not the person covered by the warrant.

The eight have denied the robbery, claiming they are being framed. The National Capital Region Police Office recovered P12 million in cash from the eight, who claimed it was a bribe from the Chinese. So why did they accept the money? Because the cash would be used as evidence, they said.

NCRPO officials did not buy the story and sacked the eight together with the director of the EPD, Brig. Gen. Villamor Tuliao. Apart from the eight members of the EPD’s District Special Operations Unit who directly participated in the operation, the rest of the 31 members of the DSOU were relieved to make way for an impartial investigation.

Probers said the eight used to be assigned in Mandaluyong where they were implicated in robbery-extortion. They were sacked from their posts but were transferred to the EPD headquarters in Pasig. With such a background, how did they end up in the DSOU, which handles special assignments?

The eight are currently under restrictive custody of the Las Piñas police on charges of robbery, illegal arrest, serious illegal detention and kidnapping. NCRPO officials believe it was a case of “hulidap” or illegal arrest and extortion.

While it is good to see the Philippine National Police placing its members under arrest on accusations of wrongdoing, the case highlights the need for improvements in efforts to weed out scalawags in the police.

The PNP housecleaning is a continuing effort, so the previous record of the eight in Mandaluyong should have precluded their assignment to a special unit such as the DSOU. Were they tasked to engage in a different type of special operations for the EPD? The PNP must find out, and impose appropriate sanctions on anyone found to have abetted wrongdoing.