Malu Cadelina Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY – At least 70 elements of the Special Action Forces (SAF) deployed in different areas in North Cotabato are bent on filing charges against a certain police officer and two others in the hope of getting back their money they invested in what they called was “fake rice investment.”
(Bulilit Marquez / AP / MANILA BULLETIN)
A SAF member, who asked not to be named, said he has invested some P100,000 to the ‘rice investment’ allegedly being managed by Police Officer 3 Beltzasar Elorcosa Aporbo and his wife, Bai Mamot Mangacop.
Aporbo is also a member of the SAF who, early this year, went AWOL (absent without official leave) from his unit.
According to reports, the couple went into hiding somewhere in Mamasapano in Maguindanao after they failed to return the money invested by SAF members from North Cotabato.
The rice investment, a SAF member recalled, started in November 2016.
He said P03 Aborpo told them that if they invest at least P1,800 per sack of rice, they will get, in return, an income of P430 because the rice would be sold at P2,230.
At first, the SAF member said many of them were lured to invest more money when they received big cash from Aborpo.
It came a time, he said some of them had to borrow big sums of money, had their automated teller machine (ATM) cards pawned to so-called “loan sharks” and had to sell some of their properties just to invest in Aborpo’s business.
To sum up, he said he and the rest of the 70 SAF members from North Cotabato invested some P40 million to Aborpo’s rice business.
The problem started in July 2017 when they no longer get the income they were supposed to receive from Aborpo, the SAF member recounted.
Since then, they could no longer reach Aborpo and his wife or locate their whereabouts.
The SAF members yesterday trooped to the Kidapawan City PNP to put into record their complaints against Aborpo, his wife Bai Mamot, and secretary Jocelyn Bersola.
They told the media here they are already readying syndicated estafa charges against the couple and their staff.