• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
More victims of the alleged police recruitment scam yesterday issued an appeal for La Castellana Councilor Donato “Natnat” Dumaguit to return their money.
Dumaguit and Mary June delos Santos are both facing large scale estafa complaints before the Negros Occidental Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, after he was implicated in the alleged P15 million recruitment scam, which victimized about 47 police aspirants, majority of whom are La Castellana residents.
“We need that money to pay back our debts”, Bienvenido Berja Jr., whose son, Kenneth Marvin, was among the victims of the police recruitment scam.
In a press conference in Brgy. Cabacungan, La Castellana, Berja said that he was able to pay a total of P272,000 in cash to Dumaguit for a package deal, in order for his son to join the Philippine National Police, including transportation expenses to Manila.
Berja denied claims by Dumaguit that he was the one who approached the latter to facilitate the entry of his son to the PNP. On the contrary, he was the one who approached me, Berja stressed.
He added that Dumaguit assured him that his son, who is a B.S. Criminology board passer, has better chances of getting into the police service through his connections.
Berja said they decided to pawn their small farm and borrow money from relatives to raise the payment required by Dumaguit.
In the same press briefing, a couple, both also police aspirants, said they were able to pay Dumaguit an amount of P567,000, while two other siblings also revealed that they paid P541,000 to the councilor.
The couple, who asked not to be identified, said that they borrowed money from a relative, with five percent interest, as they believed and trusted Dumaguit.
They said they were told by Dumaguit that he is ready to gamble his P80,000 monthly salary as a member of the La Castellana Sangguniang Bayan, on the legitimacy of what he was doing.
They were also told that Dumaguit will return their money if their training as police officers will not push through.
The complainants also refuted claims of Dumaguit that they were the ones who approached him.*
