A German tourist found out the hard way policemen aren’t always trusted after five Filipino cops forced him to buy them laptops. Using threats of false criminal charges the law officials were able to extort the man who later reported it to his Embassy.
It happened in Makati, the rich financial district of the country’s capital city Manila. The unnamed man was approached by the five policeman on January 29th and accused of buying counterfeit good. When this didn’t work the law officers claimed he was in possession of illegal drugs and then said he was guilty of supporting “terrorism.”
The police then insisted the German buy laptops for the station “to prove his innocence” and took him to a store forcing him to purchase the six computers on his credit card.
Once free the man reported the incident to the German Embassy.
Local officials like Makita’s police chief, Senior Superintendent Frolian Bonifacio are outraged.
“I’m not just shocked. I’m angry, for God’s Sake,” he tells news agency AFP. “Maybe they’ve been doing this thing for years.”
This isn’t the first abuse of police power in the Philippines to make headlines. Earlier in 2011 a police officer in Manila was caught beating a suspected criminal on video and another was arrested on charges of raping a street vendor.[The Local]
