Assistant Regional Director Vicente de Guzman III, of the NBI-Special Action Unit (SAU), said they captured the alleged leader of the syndicate, identified as Lourdes dela Cruz, 52, of the LWM Loan Consultancy Services with offices located at no. 12, 13th Avenue, Barangay Socorro, Murphy, Quezon City.
The other suspects were Lanie Gose Angulo, loan assistant; Elpedes’ son Erwin, 26; Sofronio Banggad Garcia, 50, of Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas, Metro Manila; Jose Dalope Garcia Jr., 51, of Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan; Wilma Galicia Fernandez, 48; and Edison Ramos Collado, 44, of Bessang, Allacapan, Cagayan.
Charges of robbery/extortion under the Revised Penal Code were lodged against them before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
De Guzman said the entrapment operation was conducted based on the complaint filed by Erlinda Hipolito, 62, who is the beneficiary of her deceased husband Ramon, a World War II veteran.
In a statement, the NBI said that on July 28, 2005, Hipolito was following up on her old age pension at the PVAO in Camp Aguinaldo when a woman approached and offered her financial assistance and took her to Elpedes’ office.
Elpedes reportedly gave Hipolito P20,000 but in return she surrendered her voter’s identification card, senior citizen’s identification card, original copy of her application form for Old Age Pension and other personal documents.
After nine months, the complainant was informed that her debt has risen to P75,000 and was allegedly asked to turn over her bank’s passbook in Pampanga to Elpedes with the promise that all her personal records would be returned once she has paid the debt in full.
"She even threatened the complainant that in case she fails to pay, her loan with the Veteran’s Office will not be approved and will no longer receive any benefit from the said office," said De Guzman in the statement.
Two months later, an emissary of the suspect informed the victim that a check worth P88,235.29 was waiting for her but she again owed the loan company some amount of money.
This prompted Hipolito to seek the assistance of the NBI-SAU.
Adevoso said numerous complaints from veterans and military retirees were received by different agencies under the Office of the President.
He said this could be due to the jump-start release by President Arroyo last June of P1 billion and the impending release of another P4.9 billion from the approved supplementary budget for the partial payment of an estimated P42 billion in government arrears in veterans benefits accumulated over the last 15 years.
If the 2007 budget is approved, another P26 billion will become available next year for the further payment of these arrears, thus allotting total funds earmarked for veterans and military retirees at P32 billion.
"Such huge amounts of monies intended for war veterans and retirees has apparently spawned the rise of more fixers and encouraged some corrupt officials and employees who will not hesitate to take advantage of an imperfect processing and releasing system presently in government veterans agencies and the near-helplessness of 70-90 year old veterans to protect themselves and their rightful benefits," Adevoso said.
He said that complaints reaching his office alone indicate that the modus operandi of these fixers and their corrupt government allies is to threaten the withholding of release of arrears checks and even regular monthly pension checks to individual veterans and widows if the veteran does not agree to give the fixers from 30-50 percent of their total take.
"In many cases, the individual arrears check that may be released to a veteran ranges from P200,000 to P500,000. We can thus imagine what portion of the P32 billion in government money, which rightfully belongs to veterans, would instead be lost to private pockets through these acts of coercion, intimidation, extortion, graft and corruption," Adevoso revealed.