Cauayan PNP officer nabbed for extortion

CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela -- A 38-year-old police master sergeant was arrested in an entrapment operation after he allegedly tried to extort P300,000 from an arrested drug suspect here in exchange for liberty.
    Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police, said he ordered the summary proceedings against MSg. Sherwin Gamit, who was assigned to the warrant section of Cauayan City Police.
    An entrapment operation was conducted against Gamit by operatives of Isabela police following a complaint raised by the family of the drug suspect, who was recently arrested by authorities.
    According to Eleazar, Gamit was caught receiving P300,000 marked money from the female relative of the drug suspect.
    This was meant to be the money for "fixing" the case of the drug suspect.
    The entrapment also resulted in the seizing from Gamit of a Cal.22 handgun without serial numbers, a Cal. 9 mm police service firearm with three loaded magazines.
    Other items confiscated from Gamit were cash, amounting to P5,055, assorted receipts, a PNP identification (ID) card, automated teller machine cards and a black leather ID case.
    Gamit was placed under police custody while administrative charges were being readied against him to finalize his dismissal from the force.
    Eleazar said since 2016, more than 5,000 policemen had been dismissed from the service while there were at least 18,000 more who were charged as part of the so-called "aggressive internal cleansing and instituting discipline in the PNP ranks." --  Dempsey Reyes and Vince Jacob Visaya