Bar owner, priest charged for faking docs

CEBU - The owner of the controversial resto bar along D. Jakosalem St. that was recently closed by the Cebu City Government and his priest business partner were accused of falsification of public documents before the City Prosecutor’s Office.

Juanito Lim of the Norte America Development Corporation filed the complaint against Rodrigo Collarin and Fr. Gil Peter Coching for allegedly fabricating a lease contract to obtain financial and advertising support from a soft drink company.

Lim said his company own four parcels of land at D. Jakosalem, which Collarin and Coching allegedly deal to prospective buyers but were not sold.

Instead, Lim said that the two defendants proposed to convert part of the 6,840 square meters property into a carenderia or a food joint, which is now called “Let’s Morning the Night.”

The complainant said he agreed to the idea on condition that he will be made the finance officer, while Collarin will serve as the technical officer and Coching will be the administrative officer.

Lim also made a condition that the properties will be vacated as soon as the corporation will already use the lot.

The operation of the carenderia went on smoothly until sometime in the middle of last year when Collarin and Coching allegedly converted the entire place into several stalls like that of “Larsian” without his knowledge and consent.

The respondents reportedly entered a five year contract with a soft drink company for financial and advertising support.

With this, Lim said Collarin manufactured a lease contract of the property between him and the Norte America Development Corporation to support the agreement that he will enter into with the soft drink company.

Collarin allegedly made it appear that he has a 20-year lease contract with Lim for the use of the property. Coching signed as witness in the alleged bogus contract.

Lim said his signature was forged by the respondents.

The complainant said he confronted Collarin about it but the latter allegedly told him that it was the only way to obtain a contract with the soft drink company.

Lim requested the PNP Crime Laboratory to examine the alleged fake documents and found out that his signature was indeed falsified.

Forensic document examiner Romeo Varona, in his findings, said that the signatures of Lim in the contract were “forged.”

Collarin’s resto bar, “Lets Morning the Night,” was recently ordered closed by the city government following several complaints by residents in the area of noise pollution because very loud music coming from the establishment. – Fred P. Languido/WAB (THE FREEMAN)