A police sergeant is now facing dismissal after he was caught extorting money from the relatives of an arrested drug suspects in exchange for the dropping of the case.
Police Master Sgt. Sherwin Gamit, assigned at the warrant section of the Cauayan City Police, was surprised after policemen from the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) announced his arrest after an entrapment operation over the weekend.
Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said he had already ordered the regional director of Police Regional Office 2 to start the the process for the summary dismissal of Gamit.
The erring cop was caught by operatives of PNP-Regional Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Team, Isabela Police Intelligence Unit, and the Cauayan Police while receiving P300,000 marked money from the female relative of a drug suspect.
The money is supposedly for “fixing” the case of the drug suspect.
Authorities seized the marked money, a caliber .22 handgun without serial numbers, and a caliber 9mm police service firearm with three loaded magazines from the suspect cop. Also confiscated were cash worth P5,055, assorted receipts, a PNP identification card, ATM cards, and a black leather ID case.
Gamit is already under police custody and facing charges of robbery-extortion and illegal possession of firearms.
Since July 2016, more than 5,200 policemen were already dismissed from the service while at least 18,000 more were penalized as part of the aggressive internal cleansing and instituting discipline in the PNP ranks.
“We need the help of our kababayan on this goal that is why we are continuously encouraging the public to report to us any abuse and wrongdoing being committed by our men and I assure you of our swift action,” said Eleazar.