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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
NBI entraps 6 on fake lot titles racket
By Garry Cabotaje
CEBU -- Six persons, including a government employee, are facing six counts of estafa after they were caught dealing fake lot titles to a couple during an entrapment in Punta Princesa, Cebu City.
NBI 7 operatives led by supervising agent Hermie Monsanto entrapped the suspects while one of them was counting the P200,000 marked money inside the house of spouses Leonardo and Aurelia Amaba last Saturday afternoon.
The Amaba couple already gave P860,000, covering the payment of five lots, most of them located in Talisay City, in July and September this year.
Leonardo worked as supervising officer of a transportation firm in Saudi Arabia for 23 years.
Facing complaints at the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office are Vivian Tan of Dacalos St., Poblacion, Pardo and Jovy Bahena, Villa Zacate, of Basak, Cebu City; Thelma Abarquez of Barangay Tangke, Lorena Abangan, of Tabunok, and Rose Cabriana and common-law-husband Ireneo Alvarado, of Barangay Lagtang, Talisay City.
They were charged with six counts of estafa for falsification of public documents.
Monsanto revealed that Tan is an employee of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Lawyer Manolo Rubi of the Cebu Register of Deeds, who visited the NBI 7 office Monday, certified that the lot titles, which will be used as evidence against the suspects, were not genuine.
Sought for comment, NBI 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda believes the arrested suspects were members of a syndicate engaged in making bogus lot titles.
Esmeralda vowed to trace the source of these fake documents, as he urged other victims to come forward so additional complaints can be filed against the suspects.
The NBI 7 chief said the persons responsible for producing these fake titles have contacts with the Register of Deeds in Cebu City, Talisay City and Cebu Province.
The NBI 7 operatives set up the entrapment after the couple contacted the suspects to come to their house in the guise of paying the remaining balance of P200,000
At the Amabas' house, Abarquez and Tan then introduced their companions Bahena, Cabriana and Abangan as the authorized representatives of the owners of the five land titles.
They also introduced Alvarado as Carlito Castro as the registered owner of a lot title in Talisay City, who wanted his property to be mortgaged for P200,000.
Later, the Amaba couple accepted the land title and handed over the marked money to Alvarado.
Alvarado was still counting the marked money when NBI 7 agents came out from the adjacent room and arrested them.
Alvarado, who turned out to be the common-law-husband of Cabriana, was found positive of the fluorescent dust on the marked money.
(October 7, 2003 issue)
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