PNP-IG AGENTS CAPTURE PH MOST WANTED
ANOTHER ‘intelligence-driven’ operation launched by the Philippine National Police Intelligence Group has led in the capture of one of the country’s most wanted persons with a P145,000 bounty on his head, the Journal Group learned.
PNP-IG director, Brigadier General Romeo J. Macapaz said that 51-year old Edgar Dingle, a known member of the Ramos Gun-For-Hire and Robbery-Holdup Group based in La Union was arrested along Kalayaan Avenue in Barangay Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City by members of the Regional Intelligence Units 4-A, 1 and National Capital Region on Tuesday last week.
Brig. Gen. Macapaz said that an ‘intelligence-driven operation’ resulted in the identification and arrest of the native of Bangar, La Union who fled the province to escape the heat of a police operation to get him and worked as a dishwasher in Makati City.
The accused was arrested on the strength of warrant of arrest for murder and frustrated murder issued by Judge Ethel Wolda Jaravata of the Balaoan, La Union Regional Trial Court Branch 34 on June 24, 2019, he told PNP chief, General Benjamin C. Acorda Jr.
The PNP-IG director said that the suspect is wanted for his involvement in several deadly shooting incidents and robbery-holdup cases in La Union from 2014 to 2018.
Brig. Gen. Macapaz said that their Rizal Provincial Intelligence Team provided the Target Intelligence Packet and Information Report which led to the arrest of the suspect following days of surveillance.
Officers from the Taguig City Police Station, the La Union Police Provincial Office, the Rizal Police Provincial Office, the Police Regional Office 1 and the National Capital Region Police Office were also involved in the successful manhunt operation, he added.
Brig. Gen. Macapaz has ordered the conduct of more ‘intelligence-driven’ operations nationwide in order to account for more wanted terrorists and criminals.
Adjudged as the PNP Best National Operational Support Unit in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the PNP-IG recently marked its 45th founding anniversary after a year of ‘intelligence-driven’ operations which netted over 2,000 Enemies of the State.
The ‘lean but mean’ is known to have silently but effectively continued its mission in 2023 when they sustained their mission to deliver big-time accomplishments on threat groups and other concerns while continuing to professionalize and enhance its intelligence and counter-intelligence operations.
PNP chief, General Benjamin C. Acorda Jr. has commended the PNP-IG for its feat which vastly contributed to the attainment of peace and order in the country through its enhanced intelligence and counter-intelligence operations.
The PNP-IG has envisioned to be a more highly-capable, effective and credible police intelligence unit by 2030. Brig. Gen. Macapaz said this year, they also aim to achieve more ‘high-impact acccomplishments to make their existence more relevant and fulfilling.
Under the member of PNP Academy ‘Patnubay’ Class of 1995, the PNP-IG last year intensified its intelligence operations which led in the neutralization of 166 Local Terrorist Group or LTG members; 1,356 Communist Terrorist Group or CTG personalities, two of them members of the CPP/NPA wanted for 55 counts of terrorism financing.
The unit also neutralized 130 Criminal Gang members and 72 Potential Armed Group members during the period.
In support to the PNP’s Oplan: Manhunt Charlie or the nationwide campaign against wanted persons, the PNP-IG helped arrest a total of 1,066 Most Wanted Persons including MWPs who were the subject of government reward money amounting to P4.465 million. The captured MWPs were the subject of bounties ranging from P750,000 to 280,000.
Members of the unit also helped in the campaign against loose firearms by neutralizing 96 personalities and accounting for 424 assorted illegal guns that could have been used to commit violence in the streets.
The PNP-IG likewise provided intelligence support to the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group’s campaign against illegal online gambling last year.
During the period, it formulated the Coplan: Hongtai Fraus which resulted in the service of search warrants against the owners, maintainers and facilitators of illegal POGO establishments in Mabalacat City in Pampanga and in Las Piñas City which led in the rescue of hundreds of foreign nationals and Filipinos who were found to be victims of trafficking in person.
Intelligence packet provided by the PNP-IG to other police units led in the confiscation of 5.22 kilograms of shabu worth more than P35 million, over 20 kilos of dried marijuana leaves valued at more than P100,000 and the uprooting and destruction of over 300,000 pieces of fully-grown marijuana plants and seedlings in the countryside.
Lastly, the unit intensified its counter-intelligence operations as part of its effort to rid the 228,000-strong police force of misfits and scalawags.
As a result, Year 2023 saw the PNP-IG causing the arrest of 45 police personnel involved in different illegal activities.
Their sustained intelligence efforts against threat groups and wanted persons have contributed to the maintenance of peace and order in the country amid the PNP’s all-out program to ensure that the Philippines will be a much safer place to live, work and do business.
