Wanting to get more money, con gang gets nabbed instead

MANILA, Philippines—Five suspected members of a gang of con artists were arrested Tuesday night after they stretched their luck by trying—for a second time—to fool a housemaid into giving them more money, saying the P90,000 in cash and valuables they had gotten from her earlier was not sufficient for the needs of her supposedly hospitalized employer.

Unluckily for the members of the so-called “dugo-dugo gang”  their second call to house helper Ann Jeneth Manzo, 18, came at precisely the moment her employer, Norma Baldomero, who was supposed to have been rushed in serious condition to a hospital following an accident, walked into her home in Antipolo City with her husband Siclot, police said.

The “dugo-dugo gang” is notorious for tricking people, usually through a phone call, into giving up cash and valuables on the pretext that a member of the household had figured in an accident and needed money urgently.

Alleged con artists Noli Española, 40; Harold Esquibel, 34; Marco Mesa, 34; Geraldine Salazar, 32; and Cecilia Andaya, 35, were rounded up by operatives of the Quezon City Police’s Anonas Station several hours after they allegedly phoned Manzo for a second time Tuesday, claiming that the nearly P90,000 worth of cash and valuables she had given them earlier was not enough for the needs of Norma Baldomero.

Anonas station commander Supt. Richard Fiesta told the Inquirer that the first call to Manzo at the Baldomero residence came around 3 p.m. Tuesday.

“A male caller told her (Manzo) that Norma was in a hospital after being in an accident and needed cash right away,” Fiesta said. “A woman even imitated Norma’s voice and spoke to the housemaid to give her instructions on where to get the money.”

According to the station commander, concern for her employer drove Manzo to quickly obey, placing over P50,000 in cash, including foreign currency and P3,000 of her own money; an I-Pad worth P22,000; and assorted perfume bottles worth P10,000, inside a bag and bringing it to a man who met her outside the Saint Joseph Shrine Parish on Aurora Boulevard, Barangay Quirino 3-A, Project 3, Quezon City.

“The man the housemaid met even made her sign something supposedly to prove that she had turned over the valuables to him,” Fiesta told the Inquirer.

But as soon as Manzo got home, the phone rang again and the man on the other end claimed that her “hospitalized” employer needed more money and that she had to take the cash and jewelry stashed in the vault.

“Fortunately, Norma and her husband arrived then and realized what was happening. They instructed Manzo to continue talking with the swindler and arrange a second meeting,” Fiesta said.

The Baldomeros initially reported the incident to the Antipolo City police but were advised to proceed instead to the QCPD Anonas station. The QCPD personnel immediately set up an entrapment operation for the suspected “dugo-dugo” gang member outside the same church near the Light Rail Transit Line 2 Anonas station.

Once the man, later identified as Española, met Manzo and received the valuables from her, police operatives pounced on him and announced the bust.

Española’s alleged accomplices, Fiesta said, were tracked down by his men in their lair at Barangay Manuyo Uno in Las Piñas City through their mobile phone exchanges.

“One of the suspects we arrested in Las Piñas City had been sending text messages to Española asking if he already had the valuables so they could divide it among themselves,” Fiesta said.

The suspects are detained at the QCPD Anonas station holding cell pending the filing of an estafa charge against them in the city prosecutor’s office.

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