LRT exec sued for estafa

A female employee of the Department of Foreign Affairs has filed estafa charges against an executive of the Light Rail Transit Authority after the latter failed to pay the agreed rental for the car he had hired.

Libertad Lazo, who is based in San Fernando City, La Union sued Dan Stephen Palami, country manager of Technorail, at the San Fernando City prosecutor’s office for issuing a P275,000 check that bounced.

Palami agreed on May 2001 to rent Lazo’s 1999 Suzuki Grand Vitara for three years. Palami holds office at Gate 2 LRTA Compound, Aurora Blvd. in Pasay City.

As payment, the LRT official issued a Metrobank postdated check for P275,000 to Lazo, but this was not honored by the BPI Family Bank in San Fernando.

"The same (check) was returned to me because the account from which it was supposedly to be drawn had already been closed," a portion of Lazo’s single-page affidavit read.

She said she informed Palami of the incident and assured her he would be paying it later.

"But after more than a year of waiting he has not paid me the amount of the check," she added. — Delon Porcalla