Metrobriefs

P5K-P10K per family displaced by Makati fires

Two months after separate fires struck two squatter communities in Makati City, local government released P2.1 million to help the 387 displaced families. The funding assistance was recently distributed by the Makati Social Welfare Department (MSWD) to 111 families affected by the fire at the Home Guaranty Corp. compound in Barangay Tejeros on July 7, and to the 276 families who lost homes at the Botanical Garden in Barangay Pio del Pilar on July 11. The Tejeros fire victims received a total of P780,000, or P5,000 each for the 66 families who agreed to be relocated to government housing sites in Trece Martirez, Cavite province or in Calauan, Laguna. Families who chose not to move to these sites received P10,000 each. The total assistance for the Botanical Garden fire victims amounted to P1.395 million, or P5,000 each for 153 families to be relocated to the National Housing Authority site in Cavite, and P10,000 each for the only three families who declined the offer. Jaymee T. Gamil

Rookie QC cop loses bike to robbers

A rookie policeman lost his motorcycle to robbers, one of whom struck him with a pistol, in his Quezon City neighborhood early Friday. PO1 Jeffrey Dalistan, 27, claimed that two armed men forced him off his Yamaha motorcycle at gunpoint on Nitang Avenue in Barangay Gulod, Novaliches. The robbers were also on a motorbike and approached him at the corner of Pulang Bituin Street around 1 a.m. One of them drew a gun and grabbed the handlebar of Dalistan’s bike, then the other hit him in the head when he refused to let go. This forced him off the bike, which the first robber picked up and used to flee with his cohort.  SPO1 Ariel Velasco said the rookie policeman reports to the Quezon City Police District’s Public Safety Battalion. Julie M. Aurelio

Bogus bank client drains trader’s account

A 26-year-old man landed in jail for accessing a businessman’s bank account using fake IDs which enabled him make withdrawals at the different branches of a bank. Lambert Lorenze Abargos, a resident of Bocaue, Bulacan province, was arrested Friday morning at a Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) branch in Quezon City, after it was discovered that he was pretending to be Tom Pua, 27, of Cauayan, Isabela province. The case investigator, SPO2 Marlon Zabala, said the suspect was caught in the act of withdrawing P26,000 from Pua’s account by presenting fake IDs at a BPI branch in Muñoz Market, Barangay Veterans Village in Project 7. The suspect showed up at the bank presenting Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and postal IDs with his photo but with Pua’s name. Zabala said the suspect had already stolen a total of P48,000 from Pua’s account at different BPI branches. Pua earlier discovered the illegal withdrawals and filed complaints in the bank. Abargos was first accosted by bank security guards before he was turned over to the police to face charges of attempted theft, forgery and falsification of public documents. Julie M. Aurelio