DIGOS CITY, Philippines -- Six women, four of them police officers, have filed sexual abuse complaints against former Davao del Sur police director Cesario Darantinao.

The (parent company of INQUIRER.net) learned about the complaints to the Ombudsman Regional Office in Southern Mindanao and the National Police Commission on the same day they were filed last Tuesday but it was only on Thursday that Darantinao became available for comment.

Asked about his reaction to the complaints, the former police director said they were trumped up and that some police officers who resented his leadership were behind the issue.

Darantinao, who was replaced last week, begged off from further commenting on charges he molested the women. He said he has consulted a lawyer to study the complaints filed by the six women.

Darantinao, who has been reporting to the Southern Mindanao police office's holding unit in Davao City, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he had taken leave of absence.

In her complaint, a 30-year-old policewoman said she was molested by Darantinao inside the provincial police director's quarters on April 26, 2008.

The policewoman said Darantinao forced her to drink beer even though she was still on duty.

"Since he was my superior and out of respect with trust and confidence, I just went along," she said, adding that Darantinao then made advances.

"He placed his left hand on my lap and thereafter slowly and maliciously touched my hand and inserted his fingers in between my fingers, pressing, mashing and squeezing it constantly," she said.

The policewoman said she made subtle moves to remove her hands. At that point Darantinao asked her to get a glass of water.

When she returned, Darantinao allegedly made advances again and asked her to sleep with him.

"He dragged his chair near me and embraced me and urged me to sleep with him in his room, which caused me much annoyance and displeasure," she said.

After a few weeks, the policewoman said Darantinao again asked her to come to his quarters. While there, she said, Darantinao gave her P500 to buy milk for her child.

"I rejected it... I was so aggrieved and so unhappy on what he had done to me being our provincial director," she said.

Another complainant, also a 30-year-old policewoman, said that sometime in October 2008, Darantinao asked her to go out with him.

She said she declined and told him she was in police uniform. But she said Darantinao insisted and told her that his wife had some spare clothes in his quarters and that she could wear them.

She obliged "with due respect to him as my highest officer," she said, adding that as she was dressing up in the bathroom of the officer?s quarters, he barged in and pulled down the short pants he had lent her, revealing her underwear.

"I tried to stop him but he hugged me tight, with his face on my neck... I covered my upper private parts with my two hands... he asked me if I knew how to give a massage," she said.

Another victim, the 35-year-old wife of a policeman, said it was in June 2008 when he went to see Darantinao to ask him about the possibility of her husband's transfer.

While inside the officer's quarters, the woman said she was also molested. She said Darantinao threatred to relieve her husband if she refused.

"I went home crying and reported the incident to my husband," she said.

Another complainant said she was molested by Darantinao as she applied for a police job in October 2008.

Darantinao said he found it puzzling that the complaints were filed only now while the alleged abuses occurred in 2008. But in their affidavits, the women said they feared him because he was the most powerful police officer in the province at that time.

They said they found enough courage only after Darantinao was relieved from his post as part of a regional revamp.

Chief Superintendent Pedro Tango, Southern Mindanao police chief, said the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Police Commission were investgating the complaints.