Marawi City 'eerily quiet' after Rasuman's deadline to return victims' money lapses

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Marawi City has eerily been quiet following Thursday’s deadline for Jachob “Coco” Rasuman to return to his victims some P3 billion worth of money he collected for an illegal pyramid money market scheme that led him to jail.

Not a single victim, from some 20,000, among them local officials and members of big Maranaw clans in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, has received any refund of their investments.

Members of the Army-led anti-crime Task Force Ranao and operatives of the Lanao del Sur provincial police, led by Senior Supt. Marcelo Pintac, are now positioned in strategic areas in Marawi City, anticipating any outbreak of trouble Rasuman’s indignant victims may instigate.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman, chairman of the ARMM’s peace and order council, held a closed-door meeting in Marawi City on Thursday with Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. and representatives of the police and the military, where they reportedly ironed out security measures meant to stave off any violence that may arise from the failure of the family of Rasuman to return the money of their victims.

Hataman declined to reveal the details of their security preparations, except for a hint that local officials in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur have been directed to help the police monitor possible violent reactions from the victims.

“The regional peace and order council and the provincial governor of Lanao del Sur are doing everything to maintain the peace and calmness in these two areas,” Hataman told The Star via mobile phone.

Tension in the two areas has been high, spawned by earlier threats of victims to harm Rasuman's relatives and the families of his pyramid scam agents if they cannot get their money back by Feb. 28.

Adiong, who chairs the inter-agency Lanao del Sur provincial peace and order council, revealed in last January’s meeting here of the ARMM’s regional security council that there have been cases of “vendetta abductions” of relatives of Rasuman’s agents by irate Maranaws that they duped into investing into their illegal money market scheme.

The abductors, however, immediately set their captives free after they received refunds either in property, such as land titles and cars, or in cash.

Lawyer Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman, former local government secretary of ARMM and now candidate of the Liberal Party for regional vice governor in the forthcoming May elections, said the police and military in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City remain in control.

Lucman, who hails from the first district of Lanao del Sur, described Feb. 28 as a “day of reckoning,” being the supposed deadline for Rasuman to return the money of people that invested in his pyramid business that fizzled and eventually caused his incarceration.

“Fear is very noticeable. There is eerie silence. Stores are closed and roads are empty. People either stayed home or went out of the city (Marawi),” Lucman said.

Lucman said Maranaws in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur do not believe the assertions by members of Rasuman’s family that they do not know where he kept the money he collected from his victims.

“People will never ever believe his family was not aware of his grandiose scheme,” Lucman said.