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PNPA graduate nabbed for ‘swindling’ police officers


National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Oscar Albayalde said the suspect identified as former Inspector Jay-are Olaguera, who was dismissed for going AWOL, was arrested in an entrapment operation in his house in Barangay Nangka on Tuesday.

Olaguera, posing as Senior Superintendent Benito Ramos and an upperclassman at the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), allegedly sent a text message to Superintendent Roland Bulalacao last Saturday and asked the police officer to send him P3,000 through the Smart Money Padala.

The 32-year-old suspect sent another text message on March 26 asking Bulalacao to send the money to a certain "Chief Inspector Ortega" who he said was assigned in Compostela Valley.

"Nagte-text siya sasabihin niya pasakay na ako ng eroplano, after a few minutes hindi mo na ako maku-contact. So talagang magpapatay siya ng telopono, babanggitin niya yung mga iba't ibang lingo...ng pulis at kadete so maniniwala ka talaga," Quezon City Police District deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Crizaldo Nieves said in a press briefing.

Realizing that it was just a con, Bulalacao reported it to the Quezon City Police District's Special Operations Unit (SOU). The entrapment operation was launched after Bulalacao discovered that the money he had sent was claimed in Marikina City.

Instead of Olaguera, SOU operatives chanced upon the AWOL policeman's eight-year-old daughter who claimed the money at a Smart Money Padala outlet in Barangay Nangka. The operatives followed the daughter to their house, where Olaguer was arrested.

Police seized two pieces of P1,000 bills and two pieces of P500 bills from the suspect. An Android phone, allegedly being used by Olaguera in his swindling activity, was seized by the police.

PNPA graduate

Albayalde said that the suspect was a member of PNPA Sansinirangan Class of 2007 and underwent the Officers Basic Course after graduation.

He said Olaguera was then assigned to the Compostela Valley Provincial Police Office in Camp Catitipan, Davao City.

"But nung inassign na sila sa PRO 11, hindi na siya nagreport magmula noon, ang reason niya is family problem. Problema sa pera," Albayalde said.

"So ngayon mas malaki ang problema niya sa pera, sabi nga natin kanina sa kanya, kung nagtuloy tuloy sana ito, by this time, he's already a chief inspector, earning more than P50,000...You could just imagine more than P70,000 sinayang niya yung kanyang serbisyo, sinayang niya yung four years of stay niya sa PNPA," he added.

QCPD director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said Olaguera's wife identified as Sait Olaguera was previously arrested in 2017 for the same modus and for usurpation of authority after she introduced herself as Chief Inspector Ayn Natuel in Taguig City. Sait has been released on bail.

"Kasi yung wife niya nagpanggap initially as member of their class. Kumbaga identity theft, one of their classmates, Chief Inspector [Ayn] Natuel," Eleazar said.

"Meron tayong mga information... maraming beses na, maraming transaksyon but we have to confirm that. So this means na talagang ito na yung ginagawa niya and the fact na itong misis niya ay deeply involved in this and they were using their children, the minors, nine-year-old boy and eight-year-old daughter in this scheme to withdraw the remittance sent to them by itong mga nagbibigay sa kanila eh nagpapatunay na matagal na nilang ginagawa," he added.

No longer a Sansinirangan

Chief Inspector Jefferson Ison, president of the Sansinirangan Class, said that they will be submitting a resolution to the PNPA Alumni Association Inc. to remove him from the roster of their class.

He said that after Olaguera was dropped from the rolls in 2008, the suspect did not communicate with any of their classmates which sparked speculations on his whereabouts.

Ison said that their fellow "lakans" -- term used by PNPA graduates similar to the Philippine Military Academy's mistah, helped Olaguera whenever he seeks for assistance. However, some of them became suspicious of Olaguera as his text messages became more frequent.

"As his classmates, hindi po kami nagkulang sa kanya," Ison said, adding that a classmate even offered Olaguera a job while his request for reinstatement was pending.

"Few years more, we received more troubling complaints from other Lakans (both upperclassmen and underclassmen) that Olaguera and his wife were sending them SMS messages and FB messages," he added.

He said Olaguera's wife even created a Facebook page to extort money from other PNPA graduates, until she was arrested.

"We condemn to the highest degree the illegal acts of their (Olaguera and wife) fraudulent and illegal acts. We are also encouraging all victims to come forward and to file necessary complaints against them," Ison said.

"We have chosen to take this difficult and hard choice of letting him suffer and pay for the crimes that they have committed and for them to be accountable not only to us but to the LAW we all vowed to respect and enforce," he added.

Olaguera and his wife who is still at-large will face cases of swindling/estafa and violations of Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and Republic Act No. 7610 or the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act. —ALG, GMA News

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