Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Malilong: Bingo! By Frank Malilong The Other Side
THERE are now 190 messages in my inbox, 180 of them requests from readers to be furnished with copies of the picture of the fake priest who attempted to steal $50 from a family friend.
They come from varied backgrounds and some are now based abroad. Victor Trinidad is a doctor of medicine in Princeton, West Virginia; Samuel Cabanubas is in Haiti; Joseph Roska wrote from Van-couver; Tim Of-tana from Guam; and Ryan Sabarre from Malaysia.
Most of the letter writers were either victims themselves or knew someone, mostly a relative, who had been victimized by the swindler. Henen Liong said it was his Lola; Jon Raya, he and fellow members of a charismatic community; Leo Lim, his mother; Christine Montayre, her aunt; George Luis Aguas, also his aunt as well as his girlfriend’s sister and neighbors; and Al Paraguya, his parents. (I just learned that my own mother-in-law had been victimized, too.)
There were some who got away. When his “relative” asked him $200 dollars for his ordination, Jorge Sanza asked him where he studied, his seminary’s rector, the prefect of discipline and the dean of studies. The “would-be” priest could only mumble before excusing himself hurriedly. Sanza followed him and saw him hop not into a bishop’s car but on a motorcycle with another man on board.
What he did not know was that Jorge was an ex-seminarian. His diploma hung on the wall but the swindler did not understand it because it was in Latin.
Another reader, who asked not to be named, also had the same story. He told the “priest” to wait because he was going to call a relative who was also a priest to borrow money from him. When he came back, the con man was already gone.
But Paraguya’s parents were not as lucky. His brother, who is a real priest, told his family about the activities of the swindler posing as a priest only after the latter had victimized his parents.
One of those who received the picture immediately identified the short fat man on the photo as the one who went to his house. “Bingo!” he wrote me back.
I am glad to report that the police have shown an interest in the case, asking for a copy of the picture. I hope they’ll catch him soon.
In the meantime that he’s still out there, casing would-be victims, here’s a friendly advice: when you have an unexpected guest who introduces himself as a priest, who is a relative, ask him to stay outside the house in the meantime, lock the gate and let your Doberman out. I understand that canines can immediately smell a rat.
