FILE PHOTO – DILG officer-in-charge Gen. Eduardo Año. Photo by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
A group of honey-tongued men claiming connections to the government’s highest authority is visiting barangays and offering officials the biggest of promises.
Their story: A “revolutionary government” will soon be set up and it needs members to occupy important posts.
Watch out, acting Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has warned, these people are scammers.
Fake lawyer
In a statement on Saturday, Año cautioned local government officials about the activities of the group, led by a fake lawyer claiming to be related to President Duterte.
“This could well be the same group of scammers who had been identified earlier and were preying on unsuspecting public officials who have political ambitions,” the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief said.
Año identified the group’s leader as a certain Jose Roa Matias II, who is said to have been going around towns and cities in the provinces claiming authority from Malacañang to appoint local executives for the purported revolutionary government.
PNP alerted
“There is no truth to the so-called revolutionary government,” said the former four-star general as he directed barangay officials to be on the lookout for the group.
“Protect your constituents from these con artists. After all, you are the frontliners, so be on guard at all times,” he added.
Año said the Philippine National Police had been alerted to the activities of the group.
“The PNP [has] been alerted and they are tasked to investigate and look into the activities of these people. Our people should all be aware by now about the scams and that they should avoid these con men at all cost,” Año said.
He likewise instructed the DILG’s field offices to take measures against the group, which recruits people and sells them membership identification cards and shirts.
Denying any move toward the establishment of a revolutionary government, Año said people should learn “to say no to the scammers and expose them in every possible way.”