AGENTS of the Philippine National Police Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) on Tuesday arrested a member of the Bayambang Municipal Police Station in Pangasinan found to be extorting money from unvaccinated motorists passing in the municipality.

In. report to PNP chief, General Dionardo B. Carlos, PNP-IMEG director, Brigadier Gen. Oliver A. Enmodias said Corporal Daniel Peculiar was caught in the act of receiving a marked P500 bill from an undercover officer in a quarantine control point in Barangay Pantol in Bayambang municipality 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Enmodias ordered that the suspect be placed under surveillance amid reports sent to their office regarding the presence of a policeman flagging down motorists at a checkpoint in Bayambang, Pangasinan and asking them to produce their Vaccination Card.

“Once the motorists cannot present their vaccination cards, they are asked to pay P500 each to be allowed passage in the area,” said the PNP-IMEG director.

During the sting, an undercover agent from the IMEG Luzon Field Unit posed as a motorist and passed at the checkpoint while being tailed by his colleagues and back-up operatives from the PNP Special Action Force attached to the IMEG headquarters.

Enmodias said that true enough, the policeman demanded P500 from the poseur when the latter told him that he has no vaccine card.

Shortly after the undercover agent gave the marked money to the accused, he made the signal which prompted the back-up officers to rush and arrest the suspect.

Recovered from the possession of the Bayambang policeman was the marked P500 bill. He was also stripped of his PNP-issued Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol with three loaded magazines, a handheld radio and his PNP identification card.

“There will be no respite in our crackdown against police scalawags amid the Alert Level 2 restrictions within Metro Manila. We are intensifying our monitoring of policemen involved in all forms of illegal activities and we will apprehend them as soon as we have enough evidence,” said Enmodias.

The official said it is also part of the present PNP leadership’s call for a much aggressive implementation of their intensified cleanliness policy aimed at penalizing or jailing police personnel violating the law and defying strict PNP directives and other policies.

The suspect is now being held at the IMEG Luzon Field Unit headquarters at the former Clark Air Base in Angeles City in Pampanga where criminal charges for robbery-extortion are being readied against him.

Enmodias said they will also recommend to the Police Regional Office 1 (PRO1)headed by Brig. Gen. Emmanuel B. Peralta the filing of administrative charges or grave misconduct against the arrested suspect which will merit his dismissal from the police service.

The official said he has also ordered a further investigation on the possible involvement of some PNP personnel on the same modus operandi, taking advantage in particular of the pandemic to extort money from the innocent.

“The PNP-IMEG will intensify the conduct of the internal cleansing program in the police force to purge the organization of scalawags as ordered by Gen. Carlos,” Enmodias said.

The official also called on the public to report the presence of any PNP personnel involved in irregularities to the PNP IMEG Hotlines: Smart-09989702286 or Globe- 09957952569. Information may also be forwarded to Facebook Page: Integrity Monitoring Enforcement Group. Twitter Account: @imeg2017.

Enmodias assured that the identity of the informant will be kept in utmost secrecy.