Ex-PBA player, 4 others slapped with carnapping complaint

THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)  filed a carnapping complaint against a former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player and four others for allegedly defrauding more than 20 victims in the so-called rent-a-car scam.

Facing a complaint for violation of Republic Act 6539 or the Anti-Carnapping Act of 1972 are former Barako Bull player Jondan Salvador, his cousin Kim Avee Yu, Jonathan Paredes, Sarah Llagas Martinez and Veronica Viceral Berquillo.

Salvador also played for the Purefoods and GlobalPort franchises in the PBA before trying his luck in the Asean Basketball League, where he suited for the Pilipinas MX3 Kings.

The respondents, according to head agent Manuel Antonio Eduarte, chief of the NBI-Anti-Organized Transnational Crime Division, allegedly conspired in defrauding at least 21 car owners into renting their vehicles to them but would sell the cars without the victims’ knowledge.

Based on the complaint, an estimated P21 million worth of cars had been sold by the respondents in the market without the authority of the owners. The victims were mostly from Muntinlupa and Las Piñas.

The scam, according to the NBI, started in July 2015.

The NBI said both Martinez and Paredes enticed vehicle owners to have their vehicles rented by Berquillo who paid them at least P20,000 to P40,000 for each vehicle loaned to her.

By word of mouth and through the help of social media, the car rental business became well-known in the area.

The NBI said the car rental services went smoothly until Berquillo failed to remit the money for the car owners.

The complainants, according to the NBI, learned that Berquillo had allegedly asked respondent Yu to “dispose” of the vehicles by means of selling these to other contacts through Salvador, who is engaged in a vehicle buy-and-sell business.

Salvador allegedly sold the cars by way of mortgage or selling the vehicles through the use of fake Certificate of Registration and its Official receipts, fake identification cards of car owners.

The respondents, for their part, denied that they were part of the syndicate organized by Berquillo and claimed that they, too, were victims.

But the NBI insisted said with the help of several witnesses and documentary evidence, all of the respondents benefitted from the missing vehicles by receiving the mortgage money or its equivalent. –Tetch Torres-Tupas