PHILIPPINE National Police Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) director Brigadier General Warren F. De Leon on Saturday announced the arrest of two active policemen wanted for several criminal charges.

In a report to PNP chief, Gen. Benjamin C. Acorda Jr., the PNP-IMEG director said the accused was a Patrolman assigned to Nueva Ecija Police Provincial Office (NEPPO) and a Patrolman from the Police Regional Office (PRO) 5’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB).

De Leon said that the Ecijano police officer was arrested on Thursday morning inside the Clark International Airport (CIA) in Mabalacat City in Pampanga on the strength of a warrant of arrest for qualified theft and four counts of violation of Section 32 of Republic Act (RA) 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act of 2013.

Members of the IMEG Luzon Field Unit, backed up by officers from the IMEG Counter-Intelligence Division, the Regional Intelligence Unit 3, and the Mabalacat Municipal Police Station (MPS), arrested the active policeman who was ordered to pay a total of P140,000 in bail for his temporary liberty.

Judge Leo Cecilio Bautista of the San Jose City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 38 issued the warrants of arrest against the policeman who was charged following a complaint from a former San Jose City Police Station chief.

The former San Jose City top cop said that the accused carted away four firearms turned over to him for safekeeping by the guns’ registered owners as a result of the PNP’s “Oplan: Katok” when he was still the Supply Police Non-Commissioned Officer of the police station. The theft of the firearms was discovered on February 23, 2022.

The suspect was temporarily detained at the Mabalacat City Police Station for documentation prior to his presentation to the court.

The 2nd suspect, a 30-year-old resident of Balud, Masbate was arrested in an entrapment operation inside a pawnshop in Daraga, Albay.

De Leon said that members of the IMEG Luzon Field Unit under Lt. Col. Gerald Dee and the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit (RACU) 5, in coordination with the Daraga MPS, and the PRO5 RMFB placed the accused under arrest after he received the P250,000 cash he loaned from the Public Safety Savings and Loan Association, Inc. or PSSLAI using an alleged “fake” PNP Identification Card past 5 p.m. last Wednesday.

Recovered were the P250,000 cash, a pawnshop withdrawal slip, a fake Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) ID, a mobile phone, and his issued M-16 Galil automatic rifle with a loaded magazine and bandolier.

The accused is now facing criminal charges for swindling/estafa in relation to RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2021 and the falsification of public documents.

De Leon said that prior to the entrapment operation, a colleague of the suspect and a PSSLAI agent in Legazpi City in Albay sought the help of the IMEG in arresting the accused.

It turned out that the suspect applied for a PSSLAI loan using the name of his colleague without the knowledge and consent of the latter and by presenting a fake ID.

After the loan was approved, the suspect cop claimed the money at the pawnshop, not knowing that undercover officers were already posted in the area.

The accused was placed under the custody of the Daraga MPS.