4 face syndicated estafa raps over police recruitment scam in ARMM

DIGOS CITY, Philippines—At least four persons, including an employee of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), were charged before the City Prosecutor’s Office in Cotabato City for suspected involvement in a police recruitment scam.

The charges were backed by statements from at least a dozen applicants—ages ranging from 18 to 23—who claimed they were each required to pay P50,000 for “limited training slots” in the police service.

The respondents claimed they had access to the police recruitment system and could successfully make one a policeman if the fees were paid.

Charged with syndicated estafa were Norodin Tilendo, alias Tong, 44, who is assigned with the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI) ; his wife, Marilyn, also known as Wewang, 42; and their alleged cohorts—Malou Fuentes, 56, and an alias Sam.

One of the recruits, Nasserin Endigay, 23, said Marilyn claimed she and her husband had “connections” with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) and the media to help them enter the police service for P50,000 to P65,000 each. The “fee” supposedly would cover expenses for uniforms and oath-taking fees.

Jayson Dacquel, 19, a son of a retired policewoman in Banga, South Cotabato, and his cousin Jonathan Samoy, 18, have also fallen prey to the scam. They said their parents paid the Tilendos P125,000 through an inter-branch bank deposit.

Marilyn, jobless, and her husband, Norodin, a driver at the BPI-ARMM, had received all the money, the complainants said.

The complainants said Fuentes had always been referred to by the couple as “madam commissioner” during phone calls who would ask them that they “settle all (their) unpaid accounts” so they would not lose their “reserved slots.”

Nash Maulana, BPI-ARMM director, told the Inquirer by phone that he had sent Tilendo several memorandums but he did not reply to any of them.

This, he said, prompted him to call for a meeting of the management committee on May 20, during which Tilendo sent his daughter as his representative.

“Tilendo has not reported to work since April 7 and had not personally shed light on the issue,” Maulana told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone.

Maulana said that during the management committee meeting, Norhata Tilendo admitted her parents’ involvement in the scam.

But she said her parents never got the money.

The fourth suspect, known only by the name Sam, who was later arrested by members of the Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao police, also named the couple as his accomplices.

In pinning the couple as the keeper of their money, the complainants said in sworn statements they had directly dealt with and gave their money to the Tilendos and that they only met Sam once in Davao City and that was on January 10.

It was also on the same day the Tilendos allegedly told them the money had been “delivered to the Napolcom” office in that city and that they were told to “prepare for their oath-taking” as new police escorts.