Cop nabbed for extorting P.1 M from drug suspect’s partner

MANILA, Philippines - A rookie Quezon City police officer was arrested on Friday night for allegedly extorting P100,000 from the partner of a drug suspect he had taken into custody.

Police Officer 1 Michael Gragasin was apprehended by his colleagues in the act of accepting the money inside the compound of the Masambong police station from Josephine Pineda, partner of tricycle driver Aldrian Abalos, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said.

Pineda said Gragasin and other policemen arrested Abalos in a supposed drug sting at a canteen in Barangay Paltoc, San Francisco Del Monte on Aug. 15.

Pineda said Gragasin talked to her at the police station and allegedly demanded P500,000 in exchange for Abalos’ release.

Because Pineda could not provide the amount, Gragasin reportedly settled for P100,000.

Pineda sought help from the District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) at Camp Karingal.

Pineda said she showed Gragasin’s text messages to her to the DSOU, which planned the entrapment operation.

Police gave P100,000 in marked money to Pineda to be delivered to Gragasin.

According to police, Gragasin did not take the money at once and instead put the cash bundle on top of chair in a hut inside the police station.

Sacked, probed

Gragasin has been relieved and transferred to the District Holding Headquarters Support Unit while being investigated, according to Eleazar.

Eleazar said Gragasin, a member of the Masambong police station anti-illegal drug unit, would be charged with robbery and extortion.

 “A pre-charge evaluation is also being conducted for his summary dismissal proceedings,” Eleazar said.

Gragasin joined the Philippine National Police in 2010. He was assigned at the La Loma police station and was transferred to the Masambong police station last February.

Eleazar said they would also investigate the other policemen who joined Gragasin in conducting the operation against Abalos.

“If they conducted a drug sting that night, why no evidence was submitted to the crime laboratory such as the illegal drugs seized from the suspect,” the QCPD official said.

Abalos could have been arrested by police on trumped-up charges, Eleazar said.

He said police officers would not be spared in the campaign against illegal drugs.