Cops nab illegal recruiter in Caloocan

Northern Police District (NPD) intelligence agents arrested a suspected illegal recruiter, who also allegedly passed herself off as a tabloid reporter while going on a house-to-house recruitment last Friday in Caloocan City.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr. identified the suspect as Angelita Moreno, 51, of Barangay Tugatog, Malabon City.

Moreno claimed she was a reporter of the tabloid Toro, showing police her company ID.

Police, however, doubted the authenticity of the ID.

The suspect, with at least six standing warrants of arrest for estafa at different Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) branches in Malabon City, was apprehended along Padas street in Barangay 12, Caloocan City at around 2 p.m.

Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., NPD-District Police Intelligence Unit (DPIU) chief, said that Moreno’s arrest came after Rosie Cruz, 24, of Barangay Longos, Malabon and four other complainants sought the help of the DPIU last Thursday.

The complainants claimed that last June, Moreno allegedly duped them and several other job seekers in their barangay by presenting herself as an employee of a printing press with offices in Valenzuela City.

Moreno, they claimed, recruited them to work at the printing press and asked them to pay P50 for a PhilHealth card, and P33 for a National Labor Relations Commission ID, which the suspect said were pre-requisites for their employment.

She then disappeared.

The victims sought the assistance of the DPIU upon learning that the same recruiter who deceived them and a number of their neighbors, was spotted recruiting other individuals in the adjacent barangay of Taniong last Thursday.

The DPIU launched surveillance operations against the suspect, resulting in her arrest.

At the police station, Moreno admitted cheating several job seekers but said that she only asked them for a small amount.

She also said that it was her accomplice, a certain Nene Hamon, who actually collected the money.

Ramos, however, said that the actual amount involved does not matter in Moreno’s case since an offense was indeed committed.

Interviewed by The STAR, Moreno said she had been detained at the Malabon City jail for eight months for estafa charges, but could not comprehend why several arrest warrants are now being issued against her.

Ramos said Moreno is engaged not only in illegal recruitment, but also in selling non-existing lots at a compound also in Malabon City.