3 Romanians opt to face case in court, declines fiscal's probe

CEBU, Philippines - The three Romanian nationals who were charged before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office for automated teller machine (ATM) skimming have chosen not to undergo preliminary investigation.

They opted not to file a counter-affidavit to negate the allegations against them.

Through the assistance of lawyer Christopher Ruiz, respondents Costel Ion, Ionut Alexandru Mitrache, and Razvan Aurelian Stancu manifested before assistant city prosecutor Ma. Theresa Casiño tha they would like to face the charges in court during an inquest proceeding, yesterday.

Ruiz said their clients wanted to post bail while the case of theft in relation to Republic Act 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act) and violation of Section 9 (c), (e), (f), and j of Republic Act 8484 (Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998) in relation to RA 10175 are pending before the court.

The three, who had been visiting the country since 2015, said they were innocent of the allegations filed against them.

Costel and Mitrache, both businessmen; and Stancu, an IT expert, all temporary residents of Padgett Place, Molave St., Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, were arrested last Saturday by virtue of a search warrant issued by the court.

Prior to their arrest, Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) personnel lodged a complaint for the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the alleged skimming hitting their ATMs and leaving numbers of victims.

LBP produced closed-circuit television footages, bank records, and other pertinent records that would help in the investigation. One footage showed a yellow Mustang 5.0 vehicle with conduction sticker IO 1414 near a bank. This helped authorities trace the respondents.

Senior Investigator III Florante Gaoiran earlier said they were able to recover two laptops, 45 card readers, receipts and documents of purchase items, lease contract of a high-end condominium, the Mustang 5.0, a skimming tool, clone cards, checkered polo, and other items from the possession of the respondents.

The checkered polo recovered was the same polo worn by the foreign looking man caught by the CCTV camera of LBP, Gaoiran said.

Casiño said since she has to evaluate the evidence at hand, there was no Information yet to be filed in court. The information, however, is expected to be released today.

In the meantime, all respondents were detained at the NBI stockade pending the filing of case before the Regional Trial Court.

Gaoiran said they would request the Bureau of Immigration to put the three men on its watchlist if there is still no hold departure order against them.

Ruiz, on the other hand, said he cannot tell that his clients would not leave country if there is no such order against them. (FREEMAN)