Capitol employee nabbed for estafa

An employee of the Provincial Assessor’s Office was arrested last Tuesday afternoon inside his office at the Capitol by virtue of a warrant of arrest for estafa against him.

Leo de Dios was arrested by elements of the Fuente Police after Feliciano “Sonny” Arriola, a retired policeman, filed an estafa case against him. The warrant was signed by Judge Sylvia Aguirre Paderanga of RTC Branch 16.

Arriola said that three years ago, De Dios offered to “mortgage” a piece of land owned by Dominga Salvacion, a barangay councilwoman of Cansumoroy, Balamban town.

Since he trusted De Dios being a friend and an employee of the Provincial Assessor’s Office, he agreed to “mortgage” the said piece of land for P150,000.

Arriola said De Dios even “assured him that if the said piece of land would be redeemed by Salvacion after two years, he has nothing to worry about because it would be easier for him to sell the lot as he is connected with the Assessor’s Office.”

Arriola added that because he trusted De Dios so much, he did not even bother to take a look at the mortgaged title, leaving it all to the care of De Dios.

However, after two years, Salvacion failed to redeem the said piece of land. So Arriola believes he now owns the property.

But when he tried to secure the title from De Dios, it was only then he discovered that he cannot yet own the property since the said title has also been mortgaged to two other individuals.

This prompted Arriola to file estafa cases against Salvacion and De Dios. He said that before De Dios’ arrest last Tuesday afternoon, Salvacion was already arrested early this year but was able to post bail.

De Dios is currently detained at the Fuente Police station. — Flor Z. Perolina/MEEV