LSGH student’s aunt nabbed for extortion

MANILA, Philippines - An aunt of a La Salle Greenhills (LSGH) student was arrested yesterday for staging a robbery to extort P40,000 from the student’s father on Sunday.

The aunt confessed to the crime, said Senior Inspector Roberto Garcia, who heads the Pasig City police Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD).

The woman is a cousin of the high school student’s mother while her accomplice is her close friend.

The aunt went to Garcia yesterday to give her statement.

“At the height of the investigation, she voluntarily confessed to the crime claiming she was bothered by her conscience,” Garcia said in an interview.

Candid camera

The LSGH also turned over to Pasig police chief Senior Superintendent Jose Hidalgo Jr. closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showing the woman and her accomplice talking to each other prior to the robbery.

The footage was taken by a CCTV camera at the school’s Gate 5, he said.

Eastern Police District director Chief Superintendent Elmer Jamias said it appears the aunt masterminded the crime.

According to reports reaching Jamias, the aunt and her accomplice divided the P40,000 but the police failed to recover the money.

The aunt “used the money to pay her debts,” Jamias said, adding that he ordered a manhunt for the accomplice.

The aunt, along with the student and his father, appeared before Garcia on Sunday, claiming a “decent-looking” man robbed them of P40,000.

Initial reports stated that the aunt fetched the student at LSGH at past 2 p.m. Sunday.

As the student boarded the silver Toyota Vios parked at the school’s Gate 5, the accomplice barged into the vehicle and held what looked like a knife covered by a piece of cloth. He initially demanded P100,000.

The aunt and the student called up the boy’s father and relayed the accomplice’s demands. After several minutes of negotiation, the “ransom” was reduced to P40,000.

The accomplice, after receiving the money, left the boy with his father at a mall in Pasig City. The accomplice told the aunt to drive him to a mall in Mandaluyong City.

The aunt then fetched her nephew and his father and the three of them went to the Pasig WCPD to report the incident.

Garcia said they will get the aunt’s statement and have a lawyer assigned to her before filing a charge of robbery in relation to Republic Act 7610, the anti-child abuse law, with the Pasig prosecutor’s office.