Four police officers have been sacked after a video of their bullet planting scam extortion attempt went viral.
The firing comes the the video proved beyond all doubt that the American Missionary Lane Michael White was innocent.
Fired were Rolando Clarin, Romy Navarro, Adirano Junio and Eugene Juaneza. In addition, the head of PNP NCR unit Ricardo Layung Jr was relieved of duty.
In a statement read before the National Bureau of Investigation, White positively identified Clarin, Navarro and Junio as the three police officers who attempted to extort 30,000 pesos from him.
Mr White, aged 20, was supposed to fly to Coron, Palawan with his father and stepmother on September 17 when he was stopped after officers ‘found’ a bullet in his luggage.
He denied owning or knowing of any .22 cal. bullet and after the video broke of him going through an x-ray scanner, the entire team was sacked for their part in the scam.
Fox News recently dubbed the Philippines as “the lamest country in the world” due to the prevalence of the tanim-bala scam.
Anchorwoman Greta van Susteren, called out the Philippines during her “Off the Record” broadcast.
Her story involved the likes of a Filipino-American friend who was victimised at Manila’s NAIA airport in the “laglag bala” extortion scheme.
Susteren said “This scam is all part of a plot to extort money out of the international traveller.”
She also said her information indicated that officials “plant live ammunition in luggage and then bust international travellers for having bullets, even holding some passengers for days, telling them they can pay a fine or sit in the slammer facing charges.”
She went on to lambaste the Philippines by saying “I know what you’re thinking – what is wrong with some people? My answer, I just don’t know.”
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Susteren then added her thoughts by saying the Philippines is “the lamest country of the day.”
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