College drop-out arrested for swindling 9 maritime students of over P300,000

MANILA, Philippines—Nine marine transportation students of Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU) in Valenzuela City lost more than P300,000 in tuition funds to a former classmate with whom they entrusted their money for the processing of their enrolment.

The suspect, 20-year-old Victor Zaragoza, has admitted his offense and has been arrested, but the police said they have not ruled out another angle to the scam.

“There’s a possibility that the suspect has an accomplice inside the campus,” Valenzuela City police chief Rhoderick Armamento said.

Zaragoza is now charged with nine counts of estafa and swindling.  He confessed that he lost the money to e-games and online gambling. He is now detained at the Valenzuela City Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Armamento said that upon checking Zaragoza’s cell phone during his arrest, they saw an exchange of text messages referring to a certain ‘Ma’am’ and the suspect was asked to keep mum about it. There were also names in the phone book under code names.

Reynaldo Ancheta, father of OLFU graduating student and complainant Janrey, also saw a message in Zaragoza’s phone that stated: “Pare, bakit ka sumama diyan? Baka malaman ni Ma’am. Hintayin mo si Big Daddy diyan (Pal, why did you get into that? Ma’m might hear of this. Wait for Big Daddy.”

True enough during the confrontation that day, a big man arrived at the police headquarters and negotiated with the complainants’ parents. He promised he would give back the money stolen from them. When police questioned the man on the request of Ancheta, the man said he was also a victim and immediately excused himself, saying he was going to the restroom.  He never returned.

Ancheta believed that the scam was not a one-man crime, but the work of a syndicate that has been around for a while now.

He said this was not the first time Zaragoza was caught falsifying documents in exchange of cash.

“He was already ‘selling’ Solas Marine certificates to other students for P20,000, which is originally priced at P25,000,” he said. The suspect was a former student of OLFU but was blacklisted after faking documents for his own records in the university.

Ancheta said he has been receiving death threats from anonymous people a few days after the case was filed. “They are threatening my family, saying they know where I live and where my children are. These must have been sent by Zaragoza’s accomplices.”

Ancheta, however, said that although he wanted to file another case for falsification of documents, the court said the university should be the one to do so.

“We’ve been asking help from Fatima [University] but they do not want to cooperate with us,” he said. “Yun na nga ang mabigat eh. Kami na ang naloko, kami pa ang napagbabantaan (That’s what’s hard for us. We were the ones cheated and now, we’re being threatened).”

Sought for comment, the officials from OLFU said the university has started an investigation.

Recalling what happened to his son Janrey, Ancheta said he was surprised upon learning that his son was not included in the students’ list for the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015.

He was informed by Cipriano de Vera and a certain “Nap,” both guidance office employees, on July 8 about his son Janrey’s pending debt in the school amounting to P25,763 for the second semester of school year 2013-2014.

When he said that his son was able to secure valid documents such as registration forms, examination permits and receipts, to prove that he was enrolled in the university, “the guidance officers showed the school ledger to Mr. Ancheta that showed his son’s unpaid balances in school. Indeed, they were telling the truth,” Armamento told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Police have found out that aside from Ancheta, eight more students were not included on the list of enrollees and were also swindled by Zaragoza. The students have also filed complaints against Zaragoza for taking their money after promising to facilitate their enrolment in November 2013.

He also asked the students to give an advance of P5,000 each for the first semester of the following school year.

“[Zaragoza] said the forms were accessible to students. They can easily copy it through the computer and hack through school records,” Armamento said.

The other complainants aside from Janrey were Almar Mante, Ralph Calimbas, Dave Patrick Se, Nicole Celestino, Renato Bacuetes, Christjhan Dacula, Alexander Nalus, and Ronnie Napul, all of whom are graduating students this semester.

Armamento said as many as 30 students were swindled by Zaragoza.

“Some of the parents have told me that they will withdraw the case once they get their money back, but my family won’t,” Ancheta said. “I won’t let this happen again to other students, especially when I know my son only did this as an honest mistake… in good faith.”

Three of the victims have re-enrolled in OLFU while the rest stopped in the current semester.

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