300 Dagupan residents gypped by lending firm
NBI AGENTS BEHIND SCAM?
REMEMBER the shooting rampage at the Lingayen National High School (LNHS) perpetrated by a policeman sometime in September last year for the failure of some teachers to pay their loan payments?
A similar incident may have been averted in Dagupan City after some 300 defaulting borrowers, all of whom are poor and residing in sitios Bagong Barrio, Sabangan, Tondaligan and Sapang Bato in Bonuan Gueset, reported to the city government the alleged death threats of SS Marketing Inc., a money lending company for defaulting on their loan payments.
Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, a lawyer, believes the situation could lead to a bloody incident too because the borrowers are in no position to pay the usurious rates and they now fear for their lives after allegedly receiving death threats from persons believed to be agents or assets of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who accompany the collectors of the lending company.
The modus operandi of the lending scheme was bared during a committee hearing conducted Friday by the committee on information of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) headed by Tamayo and attended by the residents of the four sitios, who obtained loans from SSMI with office in Dagupan City.
All the borrowers said they recently received demand letters and while some were served warrants of arrest purportedly coming from a court in Talavera, Nueva Ecija after being charged with the case of estafa for non-payment of their loans.
The borrowers were made to amortize daily from P120 to P200 for loans of P3,000-P5,000 for a 40- day period.
One borrower already reportedly died of heart attack while another reportedly committed suicide after receiving threats of arrest and detention for failing to pay their loans whose interest rates that have already exceeded the principal amount of the cash loans.
The demand letters were signed by one Santiago Maligson Jr. who in his complaint filed in a court in Talavera, Nueva Ecija made it appear that the respondents signed contracts of trust agreement with SSMI in Talavera.
The borrowers denied signing such documents since they were allegedly made to believe that they signed contracts of loan, after signing blank documents.
In their complaint to the NBI, they accused Maligson of having made it appear that they traveled to Talavera to obtain the loans from the company when the loans were negotiated in Dagupan City.
Joan Macay, president of Bagong Barrio Residents Association, told newsmen that she and the rest of the borrowers were also made to sign in Dagupan a small ledger, and not a contract of lease agreement being claimed by Maligson.
She added that her P3,000 loan required her to buy home items, i.e., pillows, mosquito net, curtains, thermos bottle, etc not realizing that cash value of the materials were charged interest rates as well. Her P3,000 loan ballooned to P9,000 in 40 days.
“This is a big scam that has victimized our poor residents in Dagupan,” Tamayo said. “While we are glad that representatives of the company relented and agreed to collect only the principal without the interests following a meeting with their borrowers at the NBI district office in Dagupan Friday morning, they were told the cases filed in Talavera court remains,” Tamayo, who is providing legal services to the aggrieved parties, added.
That meeting at the NBI office last Friday was set by Mayor Belen Fernandez with Atty. Norman Tolosa, NBI chief, to ask for his help because the borrowers mentioned the presence of armed persons believed to be agents of the NBI accompanying the collectors and who threaten borrowers with detention if they don’t pay.
In one instance, a loan was released to an applicant sometime in February inside the compound of the NBI.
The borrower from Bonuan Sabangan said she received her loan from one Rosemary Vidal, a civilian wearing a NBI uniform, inside the NBI compound in the presence of two men in NBI uniform.
According to Tamayo, Tolosa said he will have the allegation investigated.
One resident, Maria Dianan, who is pregnant, was arrested last month by NBI by virtue of warrant of arrest, for the crime of estafa and has been detained at the NBI cell since Feb. 11. Her common-law husband Danny Sanosa told Mayor Fernandez they cannot post the required P10,000 bail for her temporary liberty.
In an earlier privilege speech in the city council last Tuesday, Tamayo denounced the scam that has victimized residents of Dagupan who were offered loans of from P3,000 to P5,000 with a caveat – the borrower must agree to purchase home items such as pillows, mosquito nets, curtains, thermos bottle and bed mats, the cost of which is added to the principal.
Borrowers also mentioned the name of one “Pedro Roque Jr.” as the alleged the owner of the money lending company.
Norlo Galang, special agent of NBI who attended the committee hearing, identified the former chief of NBI Dagupan only as “Jun Roque”, responding to the question of Councilor Tamayo. (LVM)
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