A LOCAL businessman who claimed that four armed men kidnapped him and his two helpers and stole P100,000 from them while they were shopping in Carbon Public Market last month was nowhere to be found in his rented apartment in Isla Alegre, Barangay Basak San Nicolas, Cebu City.
According to Col. Ireneo Dalogdog, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director, they found upon review of CCTV camera footage that no robbery occurred in any of the three locations that Jason Montero Co, 49, mentioned.
Because of this, the police will file a perjury case against Co, since he was only inventing stories, and they will back his employees’ claims that they were only instructed by their boss to go along with his plan.
“Base sa atong latest nga investigation nga kini nga Chinese businessman dili na ni siya ma-locate karon sa apartment kung asa siya nagpuyo. Sa pagkakaron, padayon ta sa pag-andam sa mga necessary documents aron sa pag file sa kasong perjury under Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code,” Dalogdog said.
(Based on our latest investigation, this Chinese businessman can no longer be located in the apartment where he lives. We are continuing to prepare the necessary documents to file a case of perjury under Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code.)
Dalogdog believes that Co fabricated the stories to cover up his enormous debt from the fake cigarette business in Mindanao.
The CCPO found out in its background investigation that police were monitoring Co for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of fake cigarettes to Cebu.
Comandeered
Co claimed that he and his helpers Virgilio Zanzan Lerin, 46, and Alberto Lerin, 16, both of Loon, Bohol, were loading onto his white van (GAT 6858) the goods that they purchased at the Carbon Public Market at 9:20 a.m. on July 10 when four men appeared and ordered them to get inside the vehicle.
The criminals then commandeered the car to Campo 4 in Talisay City, where they stole P100,000 in cash, a cell phone and an ATM card from Co.
They also tied the victims’ hands and feet with duct tape and blindfolded them before dumping them in Campo 4.
The victims were later discovered by barangay tanods, and Co’s car was later discovered abandoned a few meters from the scene of the crime.
In spite of their claims that they were forcibly taken by the perpetrators, the police’s review of the CCTV footage showed that there was no commotion in the Carbon area where the victims were reportedly abducted.
Furthermore, Co -- and not one of the criminals -- was reportedly the one driving the car towards Campo 4.
Co later changed his earlier statement, claiming that on July 10, it was not in the Carbon Public Market where he had been kidnapped, but rather near the Compania Maritima building.
However, when the personnel at the Waterfront Police Station requested him to indicate the location, the victim led them to a mall in the North Reclamation Area in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.
Maj. Eraño Regidor, chief of the Mabolo Police Station, said that based on the statements of habal-habal drivers, security guards and ambulant vendors, there was no commotion near the mall, where the alleged kidnapping took place, from morning until evening, on July 10, and if there had been, it would have been obvious given its proximity to the police station. / AYB, TPT