Conmen extorting from cockpit owner arrested in North Cotabato
Local News • 19:15 PM Mon Feb 17, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
ID cards seized from the suspects. (Courtesy of Mark Anthony Tayco, DXND, Kidapawan City)
KIDAPAWAN CITY --- Five men disguised as employees of the Games and Amusement Board were arrested while extorting money from an owner of a cockpit in Magpet, North Cotabato Sunday.
The cohorts Michael Peralta, Darwin Delen, Dominador Bancal, Pedro Paña and Michael Naciongayao, are now in the custody of the Magpet municipal police.
They were arrested after a payoff in the premises of the cockpit they threatened to close down if its owner refuses to pay them P25,000 cash.
The suspects fell in an entrapment operation laid by municipal officials and the local police on the behest of a cockpit owner in Barangay Gubatan, Magpet they accused of violating government gaming regulations.
The police confiscated from them identification cards indicating they agents of the Games and Amusement Board that probers later found out were all fake.
Investigators also seized press IDs from Peralta and Bancal purporting they are senior employees of the TRadio, an FM station in Davao City.
The management of the FM radio outfit denied having employees named Michael Peralta and Dominador Bancal.
The team that arrested the five men also found a pistol inside their vehicle. JOHN UNSON, February 17, 2020