Charges for large scale estafa were filed against a councilor of La Castellana, Negros Occidental, and a Bacolod resident on Wednesday, September 20, for involvement in an the alleged illegal police recruitment scam.
The charges were filed against Councilor Donato Domaguit and Mary June Abao Delos Santos before the Negros Occidental Prosecutor’s Office in Bacolod City, Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. said.
The charges were filed by 8 of 47 complainants, as the others are still preparing their affidavits, Nellas said.
Nellas said the filing of the charges was done by the complainants with the help of the police.
Large scale estafa is a non-bailable offense, he added.
La Castellana Mayor Rhummyla Mangilimutan said Domaguit has not appeared at three consecutive town Sangguniang Bayan regular sessions, the latest of which was held Wednesday.
The mayor earlier said the complainants claimed that they were each asked to pay a package fee of P247,000 and in some cases even more in exchange for their being able to join the PNP even if they were not eligible, or are not college graduates.
They were told that if they paid the package fee they would not have to go through a screening process and would directly take their oaths as members of the PNP and start training, the complainants said.
The complaints said their parents mortgaged their property, sold their farm animals and borrowed money to pay the fee. Some of them also resigned from their jobs in Manila to wait for the oath taking rites.*