Women estafa suspects caught for failing to attend hearings

AGENTS of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) arrested two women last Friday for failing to show up for their court hearings on the estafa case filed against them.

Lydia dela Cerna and Viola Bagang were ordered arrested by Regional Trial Court Judge Simeon Dumdum of Branch 7.

The two women and Evangeline Sanchez were arrested in Feb. 2011 after being linked to an anomalous land deal.

They stand accused of swindling P700,000 from a woman who bought a land title from them that turned out to be fake.

The three women posted bail for their temporary release. Another suspect, Efren Bagang, remains at large.

The NBI-7 agents led by supervising agent Rennan Agustus Oliva arrested Lydia and Bagang inside their residence in Cebu City last Friday.

In an interview, Oliva said they had to turn over the two women to the court which canceled their bail.

The female complainant who requested anonymity told Cebu Daily News that she chose to buy a lot in barangay Tisa, Cebu City worth P1.4 million.  She said the three women and Bagang showed her a land title of the lot she wished to buy.

Wanting to build a house in the area, the complainant made a P700,000 downpayment to them.

The complainant said she started to build the house in the lot she bought from the suspects.

However, residents there told her that the lot isn’t owned by the suspects.

“I was about to put a fence on the lot. However, my attention was called by the people there because someone else owns the lot,” the complainant said.

She later found out that the lot was indeed owned by another person.

The three women were arrested in an entrapment operation in downtown Cebu City last Feb. 2011. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol