Quick response nets 5 'budol-budol' suspects

By Marcelo M. Pedalino

Friday 3rd of August 2012

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte, Aug 3 (PIA) -- In a matter of minutes, quick thinking of the victim and quick response by the police netted five members of a syndicate in a budol-budol operation.

Police authorities here filed recently a case on swindling against two females and three males from Cebu who were caught in the act of defrauding a victim of valuables Sunday morning in exchange for a “bagful of pesos” that turned out to be cut papers.

Budol budol is a scam where members of a gang approach a prospect and inveigles the person to part with his or her jewelry for supposed a bundle of money.

“The suspects were already committed in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) following the filing of their case in the sala of Judge Bethany Kapili,” said Police Supt. Rico Tome, city police chief, in a phone interview with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).

Both female suspects are from Santander, Cebu while one of the males is from Sogod, Cebu, while two are brothers from Catmon, Cebu.

Tome said the prospective victim, Dahlia Laput Pia, a businesswoman, had sensed something was wrong as the “transaction” progressed, so she went to the police station to report the incident while the suspects, sensing they had been found out, fled.

But a timely radio call for an interception and road block at the Barangay Tawid Police station resulted in the successful arrest of the fugitive suspects in minutes, Tome said.

In filing of the swindling case, Tome said the victim promised to cooperate with the police in the trial, even as Tome admitted the suspects can be bailed.

It was the first arrest and case filed so far of a budol-budol group that had been victimizing the residents of Maasin the past several years, and it happened in the first three months Tome took the helm of the city’s police force.

Tome thanked the timely report of the victim so the police was also able to act promptly.(mmp-PIA8, Southern Leyte)