POLICE operatives arrested an incorporator of an information technology firm and his two cohorts in Marikina City last Mon-day for reportedly extorting P90 million from two candidates from Cagayan province.
The suspects were identified as Bernard Baysic, 53, incorpora-tor, secretary and treasurer of 3B Technologies Solution Inc; Donnie Ray Belles and Ronald Rey Alladin, technical support member and driver, respectively, of the same firm.
The PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said the suspects were arrested based on the complaint of Rob-ert Turingan and Karen Kaye Turingan, who are running for mayor and vice mayor in the town of Enrile, Cagayan.
The CIDG said the suspects, who introduced themselves as “connected with the Commission on Elections with access to the automated result of the elections,” offered to help the two candidates win in the May elections in exchange for P90 mil-lion.
In a press briefing at Camp Crame, CIDG director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III said the suspects also offered their services to the Turingans during the 2019 and 2022 elections but the two declined.
Torre said the Turingans reported the latest offer to the CIDG, which arranged the entrapment operation that led to the arrest of the suspects in a restaurant at SM Marikina City at around 4:30 p.m.
“(The suspects) promised the candidates they are going to win regardless of the pulse of the people and whatever the actual voting results,” said Torre.
“They have this kind of influence that they are peddling and that they are able to manipulate the (counting) machines,” Tor-re added.
Torre said the suspects told the Turingans that part of the P90 million would be used to bribe Comelec officials to ensure their victory in the polls.
Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, in the same briefing, said the two are not connected with the Comelec.
“We already have a certification from the personnel department that these persons are not on the list of employees of the Come-lec,” said Ferolino.
“They have no records with the Comelec. They just posed (as connected with Comelec), they wore jackets with the logo of Comelec. Upon verifying, our records showed they are not on our list, whether as regular employees or job order employees of Comelec,” said Ferolino.
The CIDG conducted a follow-up operation to arrest four more cohorts of the suspects.
It said the four cut off their communication with Baysic due to the delay in the remittance of the money Baysic and his cohorts supposedly got from the Turingans.
The CIDG said that when the four “noticed the delay in their transaction, they ended their communication with the other arrested suspects and remained at large.”
