PNP-HPG Official Nabbed Inside Camp Crame on Extortion Charges

A high-ranking police officer was arrested inside Camp Crame on Wednesday, June 26, during an entrapment operation by the Philippine National Police's Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG).

Reports say that Major Raul Salle, deputy chief of the Operations Management Division of the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), was arrested in his own office inside the national police headquarters for allegedly extorting money from an overseas Filipino worker (OFW).

IMEG staged the entrapment operation after Maria April Ochenta, a Canada-based OFW, filed a complaint.

Ochenta first met Salle back in November 2018 when she reported her Mitsubishi Pajero as stolen to the police major. Salle allegedly asked her for PHP140,000 before the PNP-HPG could begin its investigation.

Ochenta did not have the amount on hand, so Salle suggested that she borrow PHP70,000 from 'Alex,' a civilian employee of the HPG. In her rush to go back to Canada, Ochenta agreed to the suggestion and gave Salle the PHP70,000 from Alex.

Ochenta then sent PHP70,000 to Salle while she was in Canada as payment to Alex. Upon her return to the country last February, she confronted Alex about the payment she sent. Alex said he did not receive such an amount from Salle.

When she asked Salle about the money, Salle told her that he had already spent the money. He then asked for Ochenta’s current car, a Mitsubishi Adventure, saying that he intends to pawn the car so he can pay the money he owes Alex. Ochenta reluctantly agreed.

However, rather than pawn the vehicle as he said he would do, Salle used it for his own personal purposes, yet the police major insisted that the car was already pawned for PHP300,000.

Having enough of Salle's manipulations, Ochenta took matters into her own hands and took pictures of Salle with her Mitsubishi Adventure inside Crame and on EDSA.

Ochenta again demanded Salle to return her car but he asked for an additional PHP440,000.

Last April, Ochenta reported the extortion to the Internal Affairs Service along with the evidence she gathered, but the case was not acted upon. She then brought her case to IMEG, which arranged the entrapment.