Cops nab bogus lawyer in Bulacan

CITY OF MALOLOS – The Bulacan Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) arrested a fake lawyer who victimized a village chief in Sta. Maria town.

In a belated report, police said suspect Robert Garcia, 45, a resident of Fairview, Quezon City, was caught in an entrapment operation on Monday after asking P750,000 as a lawyer’s fee and to process the lot property documents of Renato Castro, chairman of Barangay Manggahan.

Castro said he hired Garcia and a certain Ronald Felix Awid in 2017 as his lawyers.

In his sworn affidavit, Castro said he already paid the two the partial payment amounting to P325,000.

Castro, however, started doubting whether the two are real lawyers due to grammatical errors in the affidavit of complaints they made in the processing of the documents.

The victim then checked the names of the two in the Bar Confidant Office in the Supreme Court and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and found out that the two are fakes.

Police said Garcia has been charged with estafa, usurpation of authority, falsification of documents, and extortion.

Awid was not present during the entrapment, investigators said.

Lt. Col. April Mark Young, chief of Bulacan CIDG, said they were awaiting the filing of similar charges against Awid. (Editor: Leti Boniol)