By Aaron B. Recuenco These cops appeared to be discontent with the big pay hike they just received just this month. Six policemen in Nueva Ecija were arrested after they were caught extorting money from merchants passing by the checkpoint which they set up in Caranglan town early yesterday morning. Nabbed were Senior Police Officer 1 Antonio Otic; Police Officers 3 Danilo Sotelo and Oliver Antonio; and Police Officers 2 Rodrigo Edralin and Romeo Nunez III. They are all assigned to the Caranglan Municipal Police Station (MPS). Senior Superintendent Chiquito Malayo, head of the police’s Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF), said the operation around 1:30 a.m. yesterday in Barangay Digdig also resulted in the arrest of civilians Ramon Cabilangan and Darwin Lagisma. “These two civilians acted as the collectors and were seen manning the checkpoint,” said Malayo. From a monthly base pay of P21,771, a policeman with a rank of SPO1 is now receiving P33,411 aside from the longevity pay and other allowances being given. A policeman with a rank of PO3 on the other hand is now receiving P32,114 from P18,655 while those with the rank of PO2 used to have a monthly pay of P16,934, but is now receiving P30,867. The big increase took effect this month and came as a fulfilled promise of President Duterte.

Test case?

Director General Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), earlier said that the big pay hike is aimed at encouraging policemen to turn their back on the extortion racket and other illegal activities. But officials both from PNP and the National Police Commission (Napolcom) admitted that the big pay hike is not an assurance that there will be no more scalawag policemen. “Basically if you are a bad person, then you are really a bad person. Even if you are given all the money in the world, if you are a bad person, then you will still do bad things,” said Dela Rosa. Since its creation in March last year, more than 60 policemen were already arrested by the CITF, almost all of them found involved in extortion. The six policemen from Caranglan were the first to be arrested this year, when the big pay hike for cops has been implemented.

Dismissal

Seized from the six policemen were peso bills of various denominations, amounting to P2,440, which the CITF said are proof that the cops indeed were engaged in extortion at the time of their arrest. Malayo said all the arrested policemen were taken to the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame. Dela Rosa earlier vowed to immediately dismiss from service those who would be involved in illegal activities. “They deserve to be dismissed, I assure you that they will be  ismissed,” said Dela Rosa, referring to the  six Nueva Ecija cops.