Parking attendant nabbed for extortion

MANILA, Philippines — A parking attendant was arrested for allegedly extorting P250,000 from a businesswoman in Manila over the weekend.

Danilo Baltazar, 47, and his group allegedly extorted a total of P1.5 million from businesswoman Carol Carmen, 27, and her Chinese girlfriend known only as Jem.

“They turned the victims into their milking cows as they kept on asking monetary considerations in exchange for keeping silence about an incident, which involved Carmen three years ago,”National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said.

Lt. Col. Rogarth Campo, chief of the NCRPO Regional Special Operations Unit, said Carmen’s troubles started when Jem got jealous with a another friend, known only as Cez, in 2016.

Carmen reportedly hired Neil Coleta and paid him P250,000 to beat up Cez for her to regain the trust of her girlfriend.

Since then, Carmen said she had received text messages from different cell phone numbers asking for money in exchange for the sender’s silence regarding the incident.

According to Campo, Carmen paid Baltazar’s group a total of P1.5 million, with P500,000 given to Coleta twice and the rest received by different individuals.

On Saturday, Carmen said she received another text message, with the sender asking for P250,000 and ordering her to deliver the money along A.C. Delgado street in Port Area, Manila.

Carmen reported the extortion racket to Eleazar, who dispatched policemen to the area.

Police arrested Baltazar, a parking attendant at the South Harbor, shortly after Carmen gave him the money.

The suspect claimed that a man he identified only as Eric ordered him to get the money from Carmen.

Baltazar is being held by police on charges of robbery and extortion.