Ex-HPG official faces administrative case over alleged P7-M bribe
The National Police Commission (Napolcom) has filed administrative charges against a former official of the Philippine National Police’s Highway Patrol Group (HPG) who was accused of receiving a P7-million bribe to go easy on and drop the case against an arrested suspect.
“Our Inspection, Monitoring and Investigation Service (IMIS) is [now] filing a formal charge for grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a police officer against ex-HPG Special Operations Division (SOD) head Col. Rommel Estolano,” Napolcom vice chair and executive officer Rafael Calinisan said in a press briefing at their headquarters in Quezon City on Thursday.
The charge was filed before the Napolcom Legal Affairs Service which will now assign a hearing officer to the case and serve a summons to the respondent.
On Aug. 22, five HPG personnel filed a complaint against Estolano before the Napolcom for alleged grave misconduct, dishonesty, dereliction of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Complainant’s allegation
One of the complainants, Senior Master Sgt. Aladin Orale, claimed that the HPG official received P7 million from the lawyer of a certain “JJ Javier” whom they arrested on June 13 in Parañaque City for traffic violations.
However, they later discovered firearms and ammunition in the suspect’s sport utility vehicle, in addition to three armored vests, a Swiss knife, a handheld radio and a unit of an explosive device identified as a C4 charge.
According to Orale, Estolano was paid P7 million for providing special treatment to Javier while in detention and to also drop the charges against him which consisted of violating the firearms and explosives regulation law and disobedience to an agent in authority.
Orale claimed that he knew about the bribe since he saw the suspect’s lawyer holding the money in the HPG-SOD office.
He added that when they defied Estolano’s alleged order for them to drop the case against Javier, the SOD official filed a complaint against him and the other complainants before the Ombudsman for grave misconduct, misfeasance and arbitrary detention.
Estolano has since been relieved and placed on floating status. In his defense, he said he filed the complaint against Orale and the other HPG personnel because, among other things, they enforced an arrest warrant previously issued by a Pasay Court against Javier even though he had already posted bail.
