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Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Student busted for swindling
By Oscar C. Pineda
A SYNDICATE victimizing Japanese tourists was uncovered following the arrest of one of its suspected members yesterday.
SPO2 Mateo Pascual and security personnel of Shangri-la’s Mactan Island Resort arrested suspect Hazel Estardo Cadion, 22, after she received the money from victim Nakamura Yukio at the hotel lobby around 8 a.m.
A woman allegedly called Yukio and asked him for financial assistance to pay the hospital bills of a loved one. When he agreed, she told him she will send her sister to collect the amount at a designated place.
Same story
However, Yukio became suspicious when he learned that a woman also called another Japanese national, Jun Tanaka, with the same story days earlier. Tanaka even allegedly gave Y30,000 to Cadion last Sunday.
Yukio then contacted police and hotel security, which immediately set up an entrapment.
Cadion, who is currently in police custody, was charged with swindling and robbery yesterday.
The syndicate’s alleged mastermind, Manila-based Teresita Agoncillo, was slapped with the same charges, but she remains at large.
Cadion is a second year tourism and travel management college student at a university in Lapu-Lapu City.
KTV
She also works at a KTV bar to help pay for schooling.
She admitted that she has a Japanese boyfriend who pays for the apartment where she and her mother live. But she denied being involved in a syndicate.
She said Agoncillo would call on her cellular phone and ask her to collect money from a Japanese guy. Agoncillo would provide the name and meeting place, she said.
When asked how Agoncillo got her number, she said she did not know. She said she did not bother to check Agoncillo’s background or operation because the latter paid her for the “trips.”
Cadion told police she already collected from three Japanese nationals at least 30,000 yen each.
Yukio was supposed to be the fourth.
In the money transfer receipt confiscated from Cadion, the name Teresita Agoncillo of Tondo, Manila appeared as a recipient along with a Regina Domingo, who is also allegedly based in Manila.
(February 11, 2003 issue)
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