• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The man arrested in an entrapment operation last November 29 in Barangay Singcang-Airport, Bacolod City, for allegedly posing as a police officer and committing extortion has formally been charged at the prosecutor’s office.
The suspect was identified as John Patrick Calsado, a resident of Morales, Koronadal City, South Cotabato.
Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) Director PCol. Joeresty Coronica said Calsado is set to face a complaint for 16 counts of Robbery Extortion and Usurpation of Authority.
City Drug Enforcement Unit Chief Antonio Benitez said that suspect allegedly posed as a police major and threatened victims with arrest via a drug buy-bust operation as a means of extorting money.
The suspect reportedly accumulated a total of P700,000 from his victims.
Benitez added that the suspect only arrived in the city last September and has been staying in a hotel in the Goldenfield Commercial Complex area, Barangay Sincang-Airport, where he was apprehended.
Another tactic used by the suspect was reportedly approaching the families of individuals arrested by the CDEU in drug operations, promising to secure their release from jail in exchange for cash.
Benitez said that they also received information that after their buy-bust operations, someone will call the family of the subject and will demand money to settle the case.
According to him, an individual also went to one of their drug operations and introduced himself as a “police major” and reprimanded a CDEU personnel who did not salute him.*
