The Department of Justice has created a task force to handle preliminary investigation hearings on criminal charges filed against suspects allegedly behind a “rent-sangla” scam that has victimized close to 500 car owners across the country.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, through Department Order No. 138, assigned 10 prosecutors to conduct the preliminary probe on the complaints filed by victims of the alleged syndicate.
Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rosanne Balauag has been designated chairman of the task force.
The members of the panel include Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rex Gingoyon; Assistant State Prosecutors Aristotle Reyes, Rodan Parrocha, Bryan Jacinto Cacha Jr., Anna Noreen Devanadera and Jovyanne Escaño-Santamaria; and Assistant Prosecution Attorneys Wendell Bendoval, Joan Garcia and Marc Eico Tariga.
Aguirre’s directive came after the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group, along with several scam victims from Bulacan, Laguna, Angeles City, Batangas and Nueva Ecija, filed charges for carjacking, swindling and syndicated estafa before the DoJ.
The respondents in the complaints are Rafaela Anunciacion, Tychicus Nambia, Anastacia Cauyan, Sabina Torres, Eliseo Cortez, Eleanor Constatino, Marilou Cruz, Jhennelyn Berroya, Ana Borlon and Lea Rosales.
The Justice department has already placed them under an Immigration lookout bulletin to prevent them from leaving the country.
Investigators said the suspects enticed car owners to rent out their vehicles in exchange for P35,000 to P45,000 a month.
Once the owners agreed, their vehicles would never be returned to them as the cars appeared to have either been mortgaged or sold to another person.
Aguirre has also ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a parallel probe on the scheme.