Napolcom chief: Atong Ang, ‘local exec’ tried to bribe me
Aside from gambling tycoon Atong Ang, a “local chief executive” also tried to stop the National Police Commission (Napolcom) from administratively investigating 12 police officers accused of being involved in the disappearance of at least 34 “sabungeros” (cockfighting aficionados).
“There was another one. But this wasn’t Atong Ang. This was a group headed by a local chief executive. That group is a very tight group. Coincidentally, I don’t know whether their ears were sharp, but they also approached the same person who is very close to me,” Napolcom Executive Officer Rafael Calinisan told reporters in Camp Crame on Thursday.
Calinisan earlier said that Ang tried to stop the Napolcom investigation by offering a bribe through a “close friend” of his. He recalled that this happened in July, around the time whistleblower Julie Patidongan filed a complaint against the police officers before the Napolcom.
Patidongan claimed that Ang had hired the police officers to kidnap and kill the sabungeros after the victims were supposedly found cheating in cockfighting.
Calinisan declined to identify the local chief executive, adding that he could no longer remember exactly when the bribe was offered except that it happened a day after Ang supposedly made the same attempt.
The Napolcom official, however, dodged questions on whether he would take legal action against the two, saying only that Ang must first face multiple counts of kidnapping pending against him in courts in Santa Cruz, Laguna, and Lipa City, Batangas. Of the 22 accused, only Ang remains at large.
Remaining fugitive
Asked why he was revealing the bribe attempts just now, Calinisan said he waited until the Napolcom had finished its investigation of the police officers whom it ordered dismissed from the service.
“To be honest, I was insulted when they tried to bribe me. Even though Atong Ang’s camp has a lot of money, they can’t afford to pay us. Justice is not for sale,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla said the government’s intensified search for Ang has so far yielded no results.
“In the last 20 days, 18 sites have already been raided. All were negative,” he said. “[But] his world is getting smaller.”
Remulla said that investigators were looking into an unverified claim that Ang was in Cambodia, but added that the information came from Patidongan.
“If he is in Cambodia, we have an extradition treaty. We can get him,” Remulla said, while noting that Ang’s financial resources could pose challenges.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has offered a P10-million reward for information that could lead to his capture.
