Manila: The head of police in Metro Manila has vowed prompt action against rogue policemen in Makati City following a series of misdemeanours that undermined the credibility of the police force in the country’s premier business district.

Police Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, the director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said that, in the first incident, a group of rogue police officers preying on tourists was busted with the arrest of a policeman leading to a group of extortionists.

Police officer Jaycee Abana, according to Eleazar, had been engaged in a kidnap-extortion racket. He been caught extorting money from foreign nationals Chang Bo Fang and Fang Zhang Bao. The tourists claimed that the officer, along with four others, had abducted them and demanded 1 million pesos (Dh68,847) for their release.

Also arrested along with Abana were his henchmen, Mohalem Macapundag, Mohammad Macapundag, Mohalil Macapundag and Wenceslao Sevellejo.

On Thursday, police director general Oscar Albayalde ordered the dismissal of four Makati police officers who were caught on video abusing a female drug suspect.

“We have identified and administratively relieved four police personnel,” Albayalde said in a press briefing adding that the investigation is ongoing.

Two of the suspended officers are women.

“Let me state this clearly, we strongly condemn this kind of deviant behaviour in our ranks. We will make sure that the full force of the law will be meted against this erring policemen if found guilty after a swift investigation that is now being conducted by NCRPO,” the national police chief added.

According to reports, a woman was asked to perform in a video as a demonstration of police procedures on drug suspects. In the video she was allegedly asked to bend over and bare herself to the camera to demonstrate ways how drug suspects store illicit substances inside their bodies to evade arrest.

The video, which was taken last year, went viral placing the woman, who claimed that she was paid a sum by the police to take key part in the demonstration, in an embarrassing situation.

The video also drew outrage from women’s rights group, the Gabriela Women’s Party.

“Sacking implicated police officers should not excuse them from graver liabilities and penalties,” the group said.