Jail guard, lover charged for staging kidnapping

CEBU - Criminal complaint for robbery with intimidation of person was filed yesterday against a prison guard and his alleged paramour after they were caught in an entrapment operation staging a kidnapping to extort money from the woman’s husband.

The Cebu Provincial Police Office intelligence branch filed the case against Prison Guard 1 Rogelio Hatamosa and Elvisa Semblante Inoc before the provincial prosecutors’ office.

Hatamosa and Inoc were arrested by PIB operatives last Monday during an entrapment operation in Cebu City after they allegedly connived to extort money from Inoc’s husband by staging a kidnapping.

Hatamosa and Inoc are reportedly having an intimate relationship long before the latter got married to her husband, Al Badoy Inoc, in 2005.

Al, who is a seaman, said he arrived last October 20 to enjoy his vacation. However, while he and his family were having an outing on October 25 in Liloan, they received a call from his wife’s aunt informing them that they need to pay their electric bills because the Visayan Electric Company has already demanded for it.

Al said that he and his wife went home to get the money leaving their company in the beach. According to Al, his wife went to the VECO office in SM City-Cebu to pay their electric bills while he went back to the beach.

Al said that he already felt strange because four hours after his wife left, the latter did not anymore contact him. Surprisingly, a text message from his wife’s mobile phone came in saying that “she is in good hands”. Succeeding messages already demanded money for his wife’s release.

Thinking that his wife was really kidnapped, Al said that his father-in-law sought the help of the police by calling his friend PO2 Mar Tagalog. On October 26, while they were already meeting with the police, the supposed kidnapper called up and demanded P100,000 in exchange for the release of his wife.

However, Al said they learned from his wife’s best friend that the accused were having an affair. Al said they immediately set up the dragnet that resulted to the arrest of Hatamosa and Elvisa Inoc despite their cleverness. According to Al, the venue for the supposed ransom pay-off was transferred three times. He said the original agreement was for them to meet at the vicinity of the Consolacion Public Market. — Fred P. Languido/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)