Fake PNP-IMEG agent arrested in Cebu

A MAN who was found to be posing as an officer of the Philippine National Police Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) is now in jail after being arrested by real policemen last Sunday afternoon, PNP-IMEG director, Brigadier General Ronald O. Lee announced yesterday.

Ruel Abella, a 33-year-old resident of Barangay Canlumampao in Toledo City, Cebu was arrested along with his 16-year-old neighbor during an operation in Bgy. Poog at 1:50 p.m. Sunday, said the PNP-IMEG director.

According to Lee, they placed Abella under investigation after officers from the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company of the Cebu Police Provincial Office reported that he introduced himself as a PNP-IMEG operative assigned at the IMEG’s Visayas Field Unit.

The Cebu policemen were conducting an Oplan: Katok in which they knock on the doors of known gunholders in the province and request them to renew their licenses on time.

“We got a complaint that the suspect questioned the legality of the local police’s conduct of Oplan: Katok and bravely introduced himself as an IMEG Visayas Field Unit member and even showed his identification card,” said Lee.

When the PNP-IMEG certified that the suspect is a fake cop and is not in their list of bonafide personnel, the local police under Police Regional Office 7 director, Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius D. Ferro conducted the operation which resulted in the arrest of the suspect.

Recovered from his possession were one caliber .45 pistol with serial no. 261758, a magazine with seven live ammunition and one hand grenade. The suspect’s Honday Mio scooter was impounded by the Cebu police.

The teenage companion of the suspect was arrested when he tried to flee on foot while Abella was being arrested. Recovered from the young suspect were two heat-sealed plastic sachets containing suspected shabu.