Three SP staff served arrest warrants, too
THE money-lending scam in Dagupan City suddenly took a surprise twist when three staff members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) were served with warrants of arrest for estafa by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) allegedly for defaulting in their loan payments to the SS Marketing Inc. as well.
Those served with the arrest warrants were Mary Ann Vidal, secretary of Councilor and minority floor leader Redford Erfe Mejia; Anton Macaraeg, secretary of Vice Mayor Brian Lim; and Marlyn Villamil, a staff member of Councilor and Presiding Pro tempore Karlos Reyna.
However, after completing the usual documentation process for their arrests, the three managed to post P10,000 bail bonds each and did not spend a single minute in detention.
Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, counsel of the borrowers, said he was surprised to learn that personnel of the Dagupan city council were also victimized in addition to the more than 100 residents in the city and he suspects that there may possibly be more employees of the city government who will soon be served warrants of arrests.
The new warrants were also issued by Municipal Trial Court Judge Marinel Agudo Santos of Talavera, Nueva Ecija and like the rest of the warrants she earlier issued, these were coursed through the NBI and not the Dagupan police.
The new arrest warrants were served a day after officials of SS Marketing again failed to show up in their scheduled meeting last March 30 at the NBI office with the borrowers from Sitios Bagong Barrio, Sabangan, Tondaligan and Sapang Bato for the presentation of the statements of accounts and subsequent acceptance of payments of principal amounts from the borrowers.
The March 30 meeting was agreed upon during a confrontation last February 27 between SSMI and the borrowers.
Mr. Tamayo said that after the SSMI officials continuously failed to live up to their assurances to cooperate in arranging an amicable settlement, the victims are left with no other option but to go to court for relief.
To protect his clients from further harassment, Mr. Tamayo said he is set to file a class suit seeking to nullify the questionable trust receipt agreement that SSMI officials claim the borrowers signed.
His clients claimed they were made to sign blank documents given an assurance that it was a formality for the loan agreement only to find out that the document was prepared as trust receipt agreement.
Moreover, the company manager, Santiago Maligson Jr., made it appear the borrowers travelled to Talavera, Nueva Ecija to obtain the loan when in fact, the loan was transacted at the borrowers’ homes.
According to Mr. Tamayo, after Maligson failed to appear in mutually agreed dates, he will also file a resolution in the city council recommending to Mayor Belen Fernandez the immediate closure of the office of SSMI office located in Barangay Bonuan Sabangan in Bonuan Gueset.
The city’s one-stop business center had confirmed earlier that SSMI had no business permit while Assistant City Legal Officer Roy Laforteza, on the other hand, had verified that the company has no business name registration with the Department of Trade and Industry. (Leonardo Micua)
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