A GROUP of local and foreign businessmen has asked President Rodrigo Duterte to eradicate the widespread extortion activities of a syndicate based in Metro Manila.
According to the group of investors, these nefarious activities similar to the one that happened at the Bureau of Immigration don’t only transpire in government but in the private sector as well where businessmen in the insurance industry were the victims.
It was the same case filed against Ronelo Mendoza Villanueva at the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 69 early this month after Villanueva allegedly extorted millions of pesos from a Hong Kong insurance broker, informed sources said.
Villanueva allegedly involved the insurance industry as well as other government agencies to destroy the integrity of the insurance brokerage company which has been operating overseas for the past three decades.
According to the sources, Villanueva, a resident of Parañaque City, carried out his modus operandi by informing these government agencies on the presence of insurance brokers who do business in the country without the necessary permits and licenses from the government.
Telling his victims that he’s an official of these government agencies, Villanueva allegedly pulled off the heist by calling and threatening the insurance firm that their business would be closed down if they did not give in to his multimillion-peso demands.
Villanueva is also facing grave threat charges for reportedly threatening the insurance broker and their victims for the past three years after refusing to provide the amount being asked by the suspect.
Cases like this forced the insurance brokers and other private sector to ask the Duterte administration for protection and put the members of the crime syndicate behind bars, the sources added.