A POLICE officer who was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 for allegedly duping his fellow officer to invest in a non-existent financing firm for casino customers will face trial.
This time, he has to answer allegations of stealing assorted apparel and jewelry worth more than P500,000 from the wife of a police official.
PO3 Joseph Villaester was charged with estafa before the Regional Trial Court-Office of the Clerk of Court yesterday morning.
Associate Prosecution Attorney Jennifer Karen Leyson set the bail at P60,000 for the accused, whose case was resolved after he failed to submit his counter-affidavit.
On Oct. 10, 2013, Villaester received various items and jewelry worth P568,000 from Myra Bontuyan, wife of Insp. Delfin Bontuyan of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7.
The evidence of the transaction is a trust receipt agreement between Myra and Villaester.
The accused signed the agreement in the presence of Insp. Bontuyan.
As agreed, Villaester was supposed to sell the items, return the proceeds to Myra within 15 days and to return the unsold goods.
The policeman, however, failed to show up and remit the sales after the period lapsed.
“I exerted effort to locate...Villaester but he could no longer be found at his given address on A. Lopez St., Cebu City,” said Myra in her affidavit. “I tried to contact through (his) cellular phone but his phone number is already not in use.”
Myra went back to Villaester’s house with her husband on Oct. 29, 2013.
The accused’s wife told the couple that her husband was in the CIDG 7 office.
The Bontuyans later went to the office and confronted the accused. They gave Villaester a letter, demanding the police officer to remit the money in five days.
“At this instance, Villaester asked for enough time for him to secure money to pay his obligations,” said Myra.
The accused, however, has once again failed to deliver the money or the items to Myra.
On Nov. 15, 2013, he called up Myra and reportedly told her that he could not pay because his mother was confined in a hospital.
Last Nov. 10, 2014, NBI agents arrested Villaester inside CIDG 7 office for another estafa case filed against him by his former colleague, SPO1 Arnold Bocayong.
The accused allegedly stole P100,000 from Bocayong in October last year.
Bocayong said that Villaester persuaded him to invest money because the latter had a cousin who lent money to gamblers.
Bocayong was told he would earn P18,000 per month and the amount can help him in his law studies.