Man hunted for motel theft, debts, assault

He allegedly checked out of motels without paying his bills, stole a TV set, injured an employee with his getaway Volvo, and left it up to two women to clean up his mess.

The Pasay City police are hunting down a man who on Tuesday drove off in a luxury car from a Victoria Court motel on Cuneta Avenue.

It was apparently the second time Marco Gonzaga Saca ran afoul with the motel chain, according to city police chief Senior Supt. Rodolfo Llorca.

A few days earlier, he was a guest at another Victoria Court branch in Pasay where he also left without paying, Llorca said Wednesday.

Saca is believed to be a Filipino-American based on the driver’s license he left with the two women he had for companions the first time he checked in. The purported license was issued in California, USA, and indicated Saca’s address to be in Malibu Hills.

Citing a complaint from the motel’s Cuneta Avenue branch, Llorca said Saca refused to pay his bills amounting to P10,210 covering food and lodging for a 36-hour stay.

He also allegedly stole a 32-inch LED television set from the motel.

Sensing his plan to escape, security guards and other employees tried to stop him by setting up “an improvised steel barrier” in the driveway, but Saca still managed to drive off in a Volvo (UPZ-452) and break through the barrier around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The displaced barrier hit an attendant, Jose Mari Rancapan, who was later rushed to San Juan de Dios Hospital for injuries, the complaint said.

Llorca said an initial investigation revealed that Saca checked into another Victoria Court branch on Gil Puyat Avenue a few days earlier—and also disappeared without paying.

In that first stay, he allegedly promised his two female companions that he would return to pay the bills and gave them his driver’s license as “collateral,” the police officer said.

“But he failed to return… (and) the two women had no choice but to turn over their mobile phones to the motel management,” Llorca said. They also handed over Saca’s license.

The police said they had launched a search for Saca after charging him with estafa, theft and frustrated homicide in the city prosecutor’s office.