ANGELES CITY- Ten policemen have been relieved from their posts in this city and transferred elsewhere after they were linked to alleged extortion activities on foreign tourists here.
City police director Senior Supt. Pierre Bucsit said at a press conference here that the transfer of the cops was done despite the lack of formal charges against them so as to quell nagging extortion reports.
“The problem is that no foreign tourist has filed any formal charge to substantiate reports that some policemen have been involved in extorting from them,” he said.
Bucsit did not name the cops.
There have been persistent reports of policemen being involved in framing up foreign tourists here in pedophilia cases and later extorting from them in exchange for their cases not being filed in court. Extortion demands reported varied, but usually within the range of P500,000 to P1 million.
In July last year, then Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Errol Pan ordered a thorough probe of reports that children in this city are being used by adults to lure foreigners into sex for extortion entrapments in collusion with some local cops.
This was in reaction to a speech made by Supt. Florendo Saligao, then chief of the Crime Investigation and Detection Unit , before members of the Hotel and Restaurants of Pampanga, Inc. (HARP) saying that minors in this city “are being exposed to the sex trade and being abused by pedophiles, drug syndicates, and those into cybersex trade”.
Saligao also revealed extortion schemes allegedly involving cops, wherein foreign tourists are lured to have sex with minors and then raided in their motel room. He said that the foreigners just pay up and then flee the country.
The website centralluzoncorruption.com, reportedly managed by a Filipino-American woman based here, later implicated Saligao in such schemes. Nothing resulted from the probe ordered by Pan.
Bucsit said, however, that the owner of the controversial website has been won over by the local police to help curb crimes against foreign tourists. A check with the internet revealed that as of yesterday, the website remained active.
City tourism officer Pie Flores said, however, that despite negative publicity, tourism in this city has not been adversely affected, although she could not cite statistics except for estimates that investments here jacked up by 42 percent over the last two years.
Noting that most foreign tourists here are male, Mayor Francis Nepomuceno said his administration is exerting all effort to make his city family-oriented. Angeles has been frequently dubbed as “sin city” for its numerous night clubs that used to cater to US servicemen at the former Clark US Air Force base which is now a freeport.
City police director Senior Supt. Pierre Bucsit said at a press conference here that the transfer of the cops was done despite the lack of formal charges against them so as to quell nagging extortion reports.
“The problem is that no foreign tourist has filed any formal charge to substantiate reports that some policemen have been involved in extorting from them,” he said.
Bucsit did not name the cops.
There have been persistent reports of policemen being involved in framing up foreign tourists here in pedophilia cases and later extorting from them in exchange for their cases not being filed in court. Extortion demands reported varied, but usually within the range of P500,000 to P1 million.
In July last year, then Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Errol Pan ordered a thorough probe of reports that children in this city are being used by adults to lure foreigners into sex for extortion entrapments in collusion with some local cops.
This was in reaction to a speech made by Supt. Florendo Saligao, then chief of the Crime Investigation and Detection Unit , before members of the Hotel and Restaurants of Pampanga, Inc. (HARP) saying that minors in this city “are being exposed to the sex trade and being abused by pedophiles, drug syndicates, and those into cybersex trade”.
Saligao also revealed extortion schemes allegedly involving cops, wherein foreign tourists are lured to have sex with minors and then raided in their motel room. He said that the foreigners just pay up and then flee the country.
The website centralluzoncorruption.com, reportedly managed by a Filipino-American woman based here, later implicated Saligao in such schemes. Nothing resulted from the probe ordered by Pan.
Bucsit said, however, that the owner of the controversial website has been won over by the local police to help curb crimes against foreign tourists. A check with the internet revealed that as of yesterday, the website remained active.
City tourism officer Pie Flores said, however, that despite negative publicity, tourism in this city has not been adversely affected, although she could not cite statistics except for estimates that investments here jacked up by 42 percent over the last two years.
Noting that most foreign tourists here are male, Mayor Francis Nepomuceno said his administration is exerting all effort to make his city family-oriented. Angeles has been frequently dubbed as “sin city” for its numerous night clubs that used to cater to US servicemen at the former Clark US Air Force base which is now a freeport.
