FIRING LINE: Extortion or E-games?

By Robert B. Roque, Jr.

It’s quite a curious tale we have here involving the five Manila Police District (MPD) police officers who have been tagged as “kotong” cops on account of extortion claims by “Mang Hermi,” the 73-year-old owner of Brexicon Internet Cafe on Matimyas Street, Sampaloc, Manila.

It might be easier to believe that the five MPD cops — Staff Sergeants Ryann Paculan and Jan Erwin Isaac, Cpl. Jonmark Dabucol, and Patrolmen Jeremiah Pascual and Jhon Lester Pagar — had mulcted and/or stolen P43,500 from Mang Hermi’s shop.

But that version of events has left me asking a lot of questions.

First, that amount of cash at an internet shop of that size is fantastic. For the record, there’s no proof that money ever existed. But for Mang Hermi to make that claim will make you think: Is Brexicon Internet Cafe such an excellent business to have that amount of cash? Or does it give more credence to the MPD intelligence team’s claim that it is illegally operating as an e-games joint?

Second, if the internet cafe is such a legitimately operating business, how come the City of Manila’s Bureau of Permits did not have any record of it at the given address in Sampaloc? Also, why would any extortionist, for that matter, prey on it?

The MPD team accused of extortion claims that the tables were turned on them because they had refused Mang Hermi’s alleged offer to give them a weekly protection payola of P4,000. If that were true, then it would explain why the shop owner cried extortion.

I guess you’d say that an old man would not dare concoct a false story against five police officers. Well, not if this old man had an ace to trump kings or jacks. I received information that Mang Hermi had allegedly told the team to back off because the establishment was protected by a top general.

I would easily have dropped this “he says, she says” affair, but I’m intrigued that if Mang Hermi was only bluffing about this general having his back, how come the MPD intel team’s commanding officer, Capt. Rufino B. Casigan, denied any knowledge of his men’s police operation?

What’s to stop Capt. Casigan from acknowledging that he was the one who had requested the certification from the Bureau of Permits on July 10, 2023, unless someone above him in the hierarchy told him to shut up.

It seems rather implausible that the officers would embark on such an operation without informing their immediate supervisor, and this contradiction in the captain’s statement raises eyebrows. There must be some form of communication between him and his team for him to have acted on that certification, right?

In light of these discrepancies and the evidence presented by the police officers, it’s essential to approach this case with a healthy dose of skepticism. While the accusations against the officers are serious, the presence of contradictory statements and lack of evidence on the shop owner’s part calls for a thorough and impartial investigation to uncover the truth behind these allegations.

I do hope Gen. Benjamin Acorda, PNP chief, assigns his best investigators to this peculiar case and, if possible, finds that missing hard drive containing the CCTV footage of what really happened in that little shop — extortion or illegally protected e-games?

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