The Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has arrested a man who had allegedly been introducing himself as President Rodrigo Duterte’s half-brother to recruit aspiring barangay officers in charge.
Jose Matias, 57, who claimed to be a lawyer, was presented on Wednesday by CIDG Director Roel Obusan at a press conference.
Matias used the alias “Jose Roa Matias II” to defraud people into joining his “People’s Congress of the Philippines.”
He was arrested on March 8 at a resort in San Pablo City based on the complaint lodged by a Ronaldo Gatdula, who said that Matias had asked him for P75,000 in exchange for an endorsement from the Office of the Special Assistant to the President to the post of village chief in Balagtas, Bulacan. —Jeannette I. Andrade