ANGELES CITY – Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan has ordered the creation of a “special desk” in city hall for Korean residents and tourists in this city, even as he vowed to work for the relief of all cops at Police Station 5 which covers Koreatown where several Koreans have been victimized by rogue cops.
Pamintuan issued the order from Rome where he sits as adviser in the ongoing peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Phililippines (NDFP).
“I will meet with the leaders of the large Korean community in this city immediately after arriving from abroad in order to assure the safety of expats and foreign visitors in Angeles following involvement of policemen in crimes against Korean nationals,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Pamintuan said: “I am dismayed and saddened by the alleged involvement of policemen in crimes against our friends from Korea who visit and have taken residence in our city.”
He recalled that “before I left for Rome last Jan. 6, I met with key officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) precisely to warn them that I will not tolerate wrongdoing involving local policemen.”
Some policemen from the ACPO’s Station 5 in Barangay Cuayan in this city were implicated in the illegal detention, extortion and robbery committed against three Korean nationals last December 30 at the Friendship Plaza subdivision.
It was also in the same area where Korean businessman Jee Ickjoo was abducted and killed in Camp Crame by a police team allegedly led by SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group in a “tokhang for ransom” operations.
Pamintuan said he will set-up a desk within the Mayor’s Office to look into the welfare of Koreans in Angeles City. “I will also seek the help of the Korean community in setting up measures and mechanisms to ensure the safety of their nationals.”
“I will seek the relief of all police officers manning Station 5,” he added, although the chief of the station and six others implicated in the extortion case were already relieved the day after he left for Rome.
He lamented that “scalawags and rogue policemen are derailing the anti-illegal drug war of the President, and should be treated “in manners harsher than drug criminals.”
