Investors still hoping for payback

ILIGAN CITY—An antique trader said he had a hard time carrying to a bank two attaché cases stuffed with peso bills worth P2 million that he earned from an investment early this year.

The money was the “interest” the businessman got in March for investing nearly the same amount in a scheme that fellow Maranaw, Jachob Rasuman, had peddled.

“I was grinning from ear to ear,” Masique said by phone,  appealing to the Philippine Daily Inquirer not to use his real name.

Expecting a bigger windfall if he put in more money, Masique borrowed heavily from relatives in Masiu and in Poona Bayabao towns,  promising that he would pay them back by early July.

By May, he was able to borrow nearly P25 million and placed it in his account with Rasuman, who operated a double-your-money scheme that collapsed two months later.

In August, Masique found himself and dozens of other investors meeting with Rasuman, who is better known as Coco, in a secluded area in Marawi City.

Pledge

There, Rasuman pledged to give their money back by February 2013.

Masique said he could not totally recall Rasuman’s explanation of how the investors’ money was lost as his thoughts centered on how he would pay his relatives who had become furious because he had not paid them.

“I think he said he lost the money in another investment,” Masique said.

The National Bureau of Investigation found that Rasuman’s group lost the money it invested in Aman Futures, which operated a Ponzi scheme here and other parts of Mindanao as well as in Cebu City. A source said Rasuman lost P150 million in Aman Futures.

After the meeting, brokered by Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., Masique said he was a little bit relieved because of Rasuman’s pledge.

Crisis committee

Besides, Masique said he learned that Rasuman was in police custody in Marawi and had no way of fleeing.

But Senior Supt. Romeo Magsalos, Lanao del Sur police director, said Rasuman was actually in the custody of the provincial crisis committee.

Magsalos acknowledged though that during the past 80 days, policemen had been securing Rasuman in Rasuman’s house in Marawi.

“The role of the PNP (Philippine National Police) is only to secure Coco Rasuman, who is at his residence in Marawi,” he told the Inquirer by phone.

Technically, Rasuman is not under arrest because no charge has been filed against him, according to the police official. “But any transaction or movement of Rasuman should pass through the committee,” Magsalos said.

He said restricting the movement of Rasuman was also aimed at protecting him against possible attacks.

Military officials

Among those who reportedly invested money in his scheme were ranking civilian and military officials, and small and big  businessmen.

One Inquirer source, who refused to be named, said several Manila- and Cagayan de Oro-based Christian businessmen, who had ties with Maranaw traders, also invested heavily in Rasuman’s scheme.

Acting Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said he believed that violence would not erupt as a result of the Rasuman scam, “unlike in the case of the Aman scam,” due to the timely intervention of the provincial crisis committee.

“Rasuman promised to pay the investors, at least their principal investments, by February next year,” Hataman told the Inquirer by phone.

Investors calmed down

Hataman said that based on what was reported to him, Rasuman had pledged to sell his family’s properties to raise money to pay back the investors. This, he said, had “calmed down” the investors.

The crisis has been contained, courtesy of the committee, said Samira Gutoc-Tomawis, a member of the ARMM’s Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA).

“Culture was a big factor here. There were less bursts of emotion because the respected elders, local government officials and religious leaders had stepped in,” she said.

But even then, Tomawis said the RLA’s committee on public order and security would convene to discuss the issue.

The decision was reached following reports of investment “agents” getting killed or their families being kidnapped, especially in the case of Aman, allegedly by disgruntled investors.

“If the killing and kidnapping continue, this could lead to cases of rido (clan wars),”  she said.

P150M lost to Aman

A source, who asked not to be named, said Rasuman had no direct connection with Aman Futures. It only happened that Rasuman had invested P150 million in Aman, the source added.

“Instead of earning from the Aman investment, Rasuman lost another P150 million,” the source said.

The source added that Rasuman still had some of the investments with him, but could not pay all of the investors.

Tomawis said the Department of Trade and Industry should have acted on the investment scam before it became a problem. “There was no regulatory mechanism,” she said.

She said that as early as August she had already questioned the scheme, which had victimized not only big investors but also ordinary people like farmers, fishermen, teachers and soldiers.

Tomawis denied being related by affinity to Rasuman, who belongs to a different Tomawis family.