US federal agents nab wanted Cebuano couple

CEBU CITY — The long arm of the law has finally caught up with a Cebuano couple wanted in connection with the alleged kidnapping of their business partner and an estafa case involving P97 million.

Roderick Go and his wife, Grace, for whom the Cebu Regional Trial Court has issued a warrant of arrest, were arrested by US immigration and Homeland Security agents in Sherman Oaks, California last Thursday after more than a year of hiding.

Cebu chief prosecutor Cesar Tajanlangit told The Freeman that he was immediately notified by phone by the US Homeland Security Department of the Go couple’s arrest.

Tajanlangit said he sought the assistance of US federal agencies in arresting the Go couple after he belatedly learned last August that they had already left the country for the United States.

Prior to that, Tajanlangit said he had been of the impression that the Go couple were still in Cebu because their lawyers assured him of this.

It had been relatively easy for Tajanlangit to coordinate with US federal agents because he once participated in a training conducted at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy and some of his fellow participants were now detailed with the US Department of Homeland Security’s bureau in Manila.

He formally filed a written request for assistance and it was immediately referred to the Homeland Security office in Los Angeles which swiftly moved to trace the Go couple.

Before long it was learned that Roderick had acquired a California driver’s license and records at the California Department of Motor Vehicles placed his address at 7556 Bluebell Avenue, North Hollywood, California.

Federal agents also learned that Grace applied for a driver’s license but used three different California addresses.

Roderick, who had been the general manager of Ronel Marketing and a shareholder at Cebu New York Handbag and Cebu Empress, was accused by his former business partner, James King, of allegedly kidnapping and trying to kill him by slashing his throat with a box cutter knife on June 24, 2002. King owns the Prince Court Motel.

Charged with the Go couple were their driver Henry Baritua and police officer Roberto Pestilos.

Baritua, who was arrested shortly after the incident, is now detained at the Cebu provincial jail. Pestilos is at large.

Provincial prosecutors are handling the case because the Go family had asked city prosecutors to inhibit themselves from the case due to alleged bias.

Tajanlangit said he would request an investigation into how the Go couple managed to leave the country despite a hold departure order issued against them.

He said he will also initiate complaints against the couple’s lawyers for allegedly falsifying documents, claiming that they submitted pleadings in court bearing the signatures of their clients when in fact they (the Go couple) were no longer in the country. — Freeman News Service