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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Tuesday, January 17, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Negros Island Region top illegal drug suspect Ricky Serenio claimed to have been an undercover agent of the Bacolod City Police Office’s (BCPO) antidrug unit for almost two years.
The claim came along the 34 police officers allegedly linked to the illegal drug trade, which Serenio named in an affidavit that detailed how he and a drug lord he worked for struck deals with the police to secure protection.
A copy of the affidavit was made available to the press via email. Dennis Jarder, officer-in-charge city prosecutor, confirmed to Panay News he signed an affidavit Serenio “subscribed and sworn to” before him on Jan. 13.
In the document, Serenio explained the circumstances he got into relative to the operation of the Berya drug group (earlier reports sourced from the police spelled it “Beria”) and several police officers’ connection to it.
Serenio claimed he became an “asset” of the BCPO’s City Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group, or CAIDSOTG (referred in the affidavit as “CAID”), in March 2015.
The CAIDSOTG head at the time introduced him to Berya Tolentino, alleged leader of the drug group and one of the top three suspected drug lords in Negros Occidental and this capital city, he said.
Tolentino offered him P5,000 a week to “develop” for the police targets from rival drug groups, said Serenio.
She also struck a deal with the police official that no member or drug den of the Berya group will be targeted in exchange for weekly protection money, he said.
In December that year, Tolentino introduced Serenio to an officer from the Regional AIDSOTG (“RAID” in the affidavit) in Western Visayas and ordered him to find a big target.
He said Tolentino and the RAIDSOTG official made a deal that the latter shall receive from the former a P500,000 protection money.
In December 2016, after a RAIDSOTG for the Police Regional Office 18 (PRO-18) was formed, Serenio said a low-ranking police officer introduced him to the head, to whom he offered a P500,000 protection money.
The unit head refused but demanded P1 million a month to be divided among PRO-18 heads and Senior Superintendent William Señoron, director of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, said Serenio.
Tolentino agreed, and no PRO-18-led raids were carried out against the Berya drug group, Serenio claimed.
All in all Serenio named 34 police commissioned officers and police noncommissioned officers allegedly getting from the Berya group protection money ranging from P5,000 to P500,000 a week.
One agent of the National Bureau of Investigation and five agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency also received protection money ranging from P10,000 to P20,000, the drug suspect claimed.
Señoron vehemently denied Serenio’s claims and knowing the drug suspect. He said the affidavit was only out to humiliate him.
Chief Inspector Dianne Grade Catedral, PRO-18 spokesperson, said they will endorse Serenio’s affidavit to the Regional Internal Affairs Service, which will investigate all the officers named in the document.
If the claims were proven true, the police officers named will be slapped with administrative charges, while Serenio will be charged with perjury if he was proven to be lying, Catedral said./PN
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