The suspect who was recently arrested for robbery-extortion possibly had some accomplice inside the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the agency’s chairperson Romando Artes said Friday.
“Sa amin pong palagay meron po siyang kasabwat dito sa loob ng MMDA (We think he had some accomplice inside the MMDA),” Artes said in a press conference.
“Meron na po kaming lead, we’ll just not mention it. Pero ipu-pursue namin yang anggulo na yan. Hopefully, ma-weed out namin kung meron nga ho siyang kasabwat dito,” he added.
(We have a lead, we will just not mention it. But we will pursue this angle. Hopefully, we would weed out his possible accomplice.)
Artes said they are wondering how the arrested fake MMDA personnel learned about an apprehended colorum vehicle and its location as well as its owner and their information.
“So assumption po namin ay merong nagti-tip off sa kanya, may ka-grupo siya rito, (So our assumption is someone is tipping him off, he had a cohort here),” he said.
On Thursday, authorities arrested the suspect identified as Jacob Arellano for allegedly extorting money while posing as MMDA personnel in Quezon City.
The operation was conducted after a complaint by a terminal operator of UV Express.
Based on a police report, a commuter van stationed at the complainant’s terminal was impounded for colorum operations on April 27 and was brought to the MMDA Tumana impounding site in Marikina City.
Arellano supposedly called the complainant and claimed to be working under the MMDA Office of the General Manager.
The complainant said Arellano asked her to pay P15,000 per month in order to prevent her UV Express vans from being apprehended. Half of the amount was given every 15th and end of the month.
On May 16, Arellano allegedly asked the complainant another P15,000 for the release of the previously impounded van.
Arellano is now detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District. Complaints for robbery (extortion) and usurpation of authority were filed against him. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
