THE two ranking police officials named by Negros Island Region (NIR) top drug suspect Ricky Serenio as among those who had been receiving protection money from the Berya drug group denied the allegations Sunday.
Serenio, considered the group’s bag man, claimed that Superintendent Maharlika Oscar Villasis, former head of Regional Special Operations Task Group (RSOTG) of Police Regional Office-18, and Senior Superintendent William Señoron, acting provincial director of Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo), are included in the group’s payroll.
In his sworn statement furnished to Sun.Star Bacolod on Sunday, Serenio said that in February 2016, he was introduced by a non-commissioned officer to Villasis, whom he claimed told him to tell Berya (referring to the drug group’s alleged leader Victoria Tolentino) to give him P1 million as protection money. They did not agree during the first meeting, claiming that Villasis rejected the P500,000 protection money offered to him, Serenio said.
However, Berya and drug supplier “Camaria” supposedly agreed to jointly provide Villasis P1 million per month to “settle the money issue.”
Serenio further claimed that Villasis told him that of the P1 million, P500,000 goes to the top official of the region, P200,000 to Señoron, and P300,000 to him and the RSOTG personnel.
In the next meeting, Serenio said he personally delivered the P1 million to Villasis at the RSOTG office at Nocppo, where the latter allegedly agreed to disregard the drug operations against Berya's men.
Both Señoron and Villasis vehemently denied the allegations.
“I strongly deny it,” Señoron said in a text message.
For his part, Villasis said Serenio was their asset when he was still the chief of RSOTG, adding that he was just a “street level” pusher who knows only some of the drug transactions and drug personalities in the region.
“How could a street level pusher provide protection money to all the commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, and other personalities he mentioned?” Villasis told VoxPop Bacolod in text message.
Villasis said he believes that somebody dictated what Serenio should say in his affidavit.
“I know that he (Serenio) is under pressure and his safety is at risk,” he added.
Villasis left the PRO-18 in September last year after he requested to be transferred back to the Philippine National Police national headquarters in Camp Crame.
