Isle tour sours

Two women selling nonexistent vacation package tours were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in an entrapment operation on Tuesday.

NBI-Anti-Fraud Division head lawyer Luis Bacani identified the suspects as Lallyne Cocal Sambile, 47, and Amarylis Ruiz Sanchez, 42.

Both   are now facing charges of fraud.

Bacani said the entrapment stemmed from a complaint of  Edillyne R. Villeno, manager of Flux Design Labs Inc.

In her complaint, Villeno said she had contacted the suspects about the tour package offering  through their website.

She said she initially purchased a vacation package for their company’s summer outing to Coron, Palawan, on April 5-7 for P130,000.

But before that date, they changed their mind and instead  said they were interested in  another package tour to  Dos Palmas, also in Palawan, for which they paid an additional amount of P62,400.

She discovered she had been a victim of a scam when she contacted their supposed carrier, Zest Air,  and the Dos Palmas accommodations, and found out that their tickets and stay there had not been paid.

The victim said  that when she tried to contact the suspects, they could no longer be found and their cell phone number had been disengaged.

Checking on the Internet, Villeno discovered another  website of the suspects offering the same package tours.

She then asked a coworker to contact the suspects and pretend that he was interested in a particular  package tour. The suspects agreed to meet their new “client” at Aristocrat Restaurant on Roxas Boulevard, Manila.

By then, Villeno had filed a complaint and agents of the NBI-AFAD  set up an  entrapment operation.

The first to fall was Sambile, who later led the NBI to  Sanchez.

The suspects are   now detained at the NBI, after charges had been filed against them in the  Manila City Prosecutor’s Office.