2 tagged in ARMM police recruitment scam cry frame-up
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Two of the four accused in the spurious police recruitment here insisted on Wednesday that they operated “legitimately” and that the complainants were “dummies” of their “enemies.”
Norodin Tilendo, an employee of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and his wife, Marilyn, said they did not even know any of the complainants, who have accused them of syndicated estafa before the City Fiscal’s Office.
The complainants, the couple said, were not on the “list of successful applicants” for the police service.
The couple also claimed they did not know they were sued until after the Philippine Daily Inquirer came out with a story on the charges filed against them and that there had been no summons served them so they could answer the charges.
But a police officer, who was in-charge of serving summons, said he had repeatedly tried but failed to locate the couple.
The police officer, who declined to be identified due to the nature of his work, said he had returned the summon intended for the Tilendos, with a note: “respondents could not be found in the given addresses.”
The Tilendos also presented to reporters bank deposit slips and receipts of money-transfer service bearing the name of Marilyn Dacanay-Tilendo as sender to Samil Mantawil Lucas.
Marilyn said this would prove she and her husband did not make money from the police recruitment and that the “fees” were sent to Sam Lucas.
Lucas was earlier arrested by police authorities in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao but insisted the Tilendos ran the scam and that they had all the money paid by the victims.
One of the complainants, Salvador Cabidog Jr., whose kin were among the recruits, said they dealt with the Tilendo couple and not Lucas.
But since the couple insisted Lucas was a companion, he was also included in the charge sheet, along with a Marilou Fuentes, who was introduced to them on the phone as “Madam Commissioner De Guzman” of the National Police Commission.
Showing a receipt of Western Union money-transfer service, Cabidog said retired policewoman Fortunata Dacquel sent P120,000 to Marilyn Dacanay-Tilendo on January 10 after the latter told her that her son Jayson Dacquel, and nephew Jonathan Samoy would be accommodated into “limited training PNP slots.”
Cherry May Layog, an applicant, said she also gave the Tilendo couple P22,500 in two installments, via the local RD Pawnshop money-transfer service.
Another complainant, Nasser Abdul of Kabuntalan, Maguindanao said he kept used deposit slips for the money he had sent to the Tilendos, through Fuentes’ Land Bank account, totaling to P 35,000.
He said Marilyn even demanded an additional deposit of P15,000, for a set of police uniforms and expenses for “oath-taking” in Davao City, which was supposed to take place on January 10.
The oath-taking event never took place.
Cabidog said when his wife tried to confront Marilyn, she “threatened her, saying she knew motorcycle-riding killers in Cotabato City.”
Director Nash Maulana of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI-ARMM), who has direct supervision of Norodin’s, said he has convened a management committee meeting and that it was decided that the police be given a free hand in the investigation of the scam.
Maulana also told the Philippine Daily Inquirer he too had been receiving death treats after he had convened the management committee meeting.
“Relatives of the Tilendos had asked me to just ignore the reaction, saying Norodin now appears to be in state of imbecility. They said he might have speculated that I was behind the charges against him and his wife,” Maulana said.
