St. Benilde cager nabbed  for point-shaving charges

A star player of St. Benilde in the NCAA was nabbed by NBI agents last Wednesday in an entrapment operation for his alleged involvement in point-shaving activities in the country’s oldest collegiate league.

Paolo Orbeta, 23, a key player of the Blazers, was arrested along with James Ryan Rosario Mangaran, 24; Rajan Lachman Amante Chandumal, 31, the alleged “banker” of the group, alias Howard Gan, and Police Inspector Aaron Raemon Abon Elago, 24.

A fifth suspect – Luigi Guingon – remains at large.

Assistant regional director Vicente de Guzman III, head of the NBI-Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (AFCCD), said they set an entrapment against the suspects after student Wilfred Uy filed a complaint before their office.

Initial investigation showed that Orbeta and Guingon approached Uy in an eatery near St. Benilde to borrow P300,000 to cover their betting losses in NBA games.

Uy was hesitant to give them the money but later agreed after they presented a land title as collateral under the name of Guingon’s uncle. Orbeta allegedly guaranteed they could easily redeem the land title by selling out on a basketball game.

On June 29, the complainant gave P300,000 to Orbeta and Chandumal, who encouraged him to gamble on their basketball games. He agreed to bet for a week last month.

“The complainant was enticed by Orbeta to place a bet in the ‘player odds scheme’ wherein the bettor would place a bet on the score of one of the players. Since Orbeta is the star player or point maker of the team, he could manipulate the outcome of the game,” said De Guzman.

They agreed that Orbeta would make less than 11 points during the July 18 game between St. Benilde and San Sebastian so Uy would win the bet. He placed a P300,000 bet. To further entice him, Orbeta made a bet for P130,000.

But the St. Benilde player made 11 points as the Blazers lost, 54-60, thereby Uy and Orbeta lost the bet. De Guzman said the P130,000 the suspect lost was a small price to pay since they had planned to encourage Uy to gamble P1 million in the next game.

On July 19, the suspects urged him to place the P1 million bet but Uy refused after he was informed that the bet was a scheme concocted by the suspects.

This irked the suspects who demanded Uy to produce the amount and even blackmailed him. They allegedly threatened to report to the school’s administrators about the complainant’s activities.

Last July 28, Chandumal, Guingon, Orbeta and Elago went to the victim’s house to insist on collecting the money. Alarmed, Uy begged for more time and then went to the NBI office.

The NBI-AFCCD, in coordination with the Manila Police District (MPD), proceeded to the Ate Em’s Eatery near St. Benilde Wednesday afternoon where the payment was scheduled to take place. They arrested the suspects after they were caught in the act of receiving marked money.

Supervising Agent Palmer Mallari, NBI-AFCCD executive officer, said that text messages would also serve as evidence that would prove that the suspects were involved in “point-shaving” activities.