MANILA, Philippines - A Quezon City judge sentenced a man to nine years in jail for skipping out on a P41,800 tab he ran up at a girlie bar in Quezon City in 2005.
Regional Trial Court Branch 219 Judge Bayani Vargas promulgated the decision last week after Alex Rellosa jumped bail and no longer attended hearings on the estafa case against him. He has also forfeited the P12,000 bail posted by Rellosa and issued a warrant for the latter’s arrest.
“Unless explained, the act of fleeing shows a consciousness of guilt and operates as an admission implied from the party’s own conduct,” Vargas said in his decision.
Court records show Rellosa and his companions – Salvador Lacuesta, Jeffrey Bautista and Jeffrey Sison – entered the Classmate KTV bar on March 18, 2005. The floor manager said Rellosa introduced himself as a colonel, rented a VIP room, chose girls for their entertainment and ordered food and drinks.
The floor manager said Rellosa told her to advise him if the bill had already reached P40,000. It was at past 4 a.m. the next day when the floor manager checked the VIP room and was shocked to find that Rellosa and his friends had gone, except for Lacuesta, who was asleep.
It was Rellosa who allegedly did all the ordering for the group, and the cases against the other men were provisionally dismissed by the court.
“The accused, by his actuation of jumping bail, did not give this court the opportunity to hear his defense,” Vargas said.