Actor’s family falls victim to 5 Olongapo rogue cops

Jake Vargas. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines—Five Olongapo policemen are facing robbery and kidnapping charges in the abduction early this month of the brother and a sister-in-law of a young actor who were later released after the family paid P200,000.

Joseph Vargas, brother of Jake Vargas, a GMA Kapuso teen star, filed the charges at the city prosecutor’s office on Monday.

Joseph identified only two policemen as Eleazar Jimenez and Alexander Quinet. Three others have yet to be named.

In his complaint, Joseph claimed the five armed policemen barged into their house in Barangay New Cabalan here on Sept. 5, and arrested him and his wife, Jonalyn, on a charge that they were holding a pot session.

The policemen also claimed that Joseph’s house was a suspected drug den.

According to Joseph, his wife and a sister, Odessa, were making miniature accessories inside their house at about 9:30 p.m. when the policemen barged in.

Joseph said the policemen forcibly took him and his wife and handcuffed them. He said they also took their mobile phones.

He said the policemen took them around nearby Subic Bay Freeport in a white sedan and demanded P200,000 for their release.

He said they contacted his brother, Jake, who was in an Olongapo Internet café at that time. They later went to Camp Cabal, the city police headquarters, where, he said, they were held.

The Vargas siblings asked talent manager and veteran actor German Moreno for help, and Jake was able to get P50,000 from him, Joseph said.

The next day, they met Jimenez in front of  James Gordon Memorial Hospital here where they handed P50,000 to him.

Later, Moreno sent the remaining P150,000 to Joseph’s father, Miguel Vargas, who met and handed the money to Quinet at a park near the hospital, Joseph said.

He said they were released after they gave the money to Quinet, who told the elder Vargas “not to report the matter to the [authorities].”  Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon