Police, Army foil extortion attempt vs Gen. Santos City-based bus firm

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 17): Police, Army foil extortion attempt vs Gen. Santos City-based bus firm

Police and military operatives foiled an attempt by an extortion group to mulct the lone bus firm plying the Cotabato City-Maguindanao-Gen. Santos City route and arrested a man during entrapment operation Friday, police said.

The suspect was to receive a PHP1 million extortion money he demanded from Biocrest Multi-Purpose Cooperative when lawmen arrested him at past 9 a.m. in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

Senior Supt. Raul Supiter, Sultan Kudarat provincial police director, identified the suspect as 43-year-old Jerry Ibrahim, a resident of Datu Saudi town. He was nabbed while in the act of receiving from a courier a package that actually contained a few bills and dummy papers.

Supiter said the entrapment was successful due to the cooperation of the firm's management with the police authorities.

Ibrahim has repeatedly threatened the bus firm of burning its units plying the Gen. Santos City-Cotabato City route if his demand for a PHP1-million monthly protection money was ignored.

Upon receipt of the demand, the bus firm cooperated with Sultan Kudarat PNP. Supiter coordinated with the Maguindanao police office and the Army's 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion in the entrapment operation.

"The bus firm's cooperation with the security officers led to the arrest of the suspect," Supiter said, adding Ibrahim is now in police custody awaiting charges of extortion.

The bus operator lauded the successful police operation and vowed to continue cooperating with authorities against lawless elements.

Supiter said investigators are still determining what group Ibrahim belonged to. But the al-Khobar extortion group is operating in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces, prying on bus firms and multi-national companies.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=965027