Ex-cop in Duterte’s narco list arrested

MANILA, Philippines — A former policeman described as a Level 3 high value target in President Duterte’s narco list was arrested in a mall in Guiguinto, Bulacan on Wednesday afternoon.

Senior Police Officer 2 Fernando Cajipe, who was listed as absent without leave from the Police Security Pro­tection Group, did not resist arrest. He was armed with a .357 Magnum Lawman MK III handgun.

Cajipe is allegedly a henchman of convicted drug lord Peter Co and has P7.72 million in the bank frozen by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, said Chief Superintendent Guill­ermo Eleazar, director of  the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Cajipe was served an arrest warrant, issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 26 for robbery extortion, by personnel from the NCRPO’s Regional Special Operations Unit (RSOU) and the Guiguinto police.

Eleazar said Cajipe’s arrest is part of the cleansing program of the Philippine National Police (PNP). “We are in the thick of our either wanted by the law, especially those involved in drug peddling, car theft, extortion and other rackets,” he said.

Records show Cajipe and three other policemen arrested Myrna Germedia in January 2002 and brought her to the Manila Police District Station 11 in Binondo. They took her P100,000 but not before threatening to “plant” shabu on her.

The court found Cajipe and his three companions guilty in 2007. The Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s decision.

Cajipe and the two other policemen filed a petition for a writ of amparo but the SC dismissed their plea in 2012.

Cajipe is in the custody of the NCRPO pending his transfer to the Bureau of Corrections.