MindanaoToday.com | Beware of impostors, budget agency warns
By: Uriel Quilinguing
The state’s budget agency on Sunday, April 21, warned the public against persons posing as its personnel out to extort money.
This, after eight persons were arrested three weeks ago by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operatives in Mandaluyong City in an entrapment operation.
One of the eight suspects set to be charged for estafa posed as a Department of Budget and Management (DBM) undersecretary who promised a complainant of some P1.3-billion worth of special projects.
Verification by the complainant, whose identity is withheld for security reasons, revealed the suspects were not DBM personnel and the projects mentioned were non-existent.
With marked money amounting to P500 thousand, the suspects were handcuffed on March 26, 2024 inside a restaurant in Mandaluyong in an entrapment that NBI agents and DBM personnel set up.
“May this serve as a serious warning to criminals,” DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said in a press statement. She urged the public to report any person or group of persons claiming they can facilitate fund releases from the DBM to authorities.
“Mariin po nating kinokondena ang ganitong klaseng gawain. Kapag may mga ganitong klase ng tao na lumapit sa inyo at sasabihing kaya nilang magpalabas ng pondo mula sa DBM, i-report po ninyo kaagad sa kinauukulan,” Pangandaman said.
The eight individuals who masqueraded as DBM officials will be charged with estafa under Revised Penal Code 135 and Usurpation of Authority under Revised Penal Code 177, according to lawyer Jerome Bomediano, who heads NBI’s Anti-organized and Transnational Crime Division.
Reports or complaints may be lodged via the DBM public assistance office email address: public_assistance@dbm.gov.ph. [MT]
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