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A contractor for a project of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) recently lost PHP380,000 to a scammer who used the Mamasapano tragedy to gain his sympathy.
“The contractor, who is identified only as ‘Charlie’ said that last February 5, he got a call on his cellphone from someone who was pretending to be NIA Administrator Florencio F. Padernal,” reports Dominic Almelor in TV Patrol.
The caller claimed to be gathering cash donations for the relatives of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) troopers who were killed in Mamasapano last Jan 25.
Charlie deposited PHP200,000 to the bank account number that was sent to him via text. After a few days, he once again got a call from the same man who said he was selling 30 tickets to a benefit event for the SAF troopers’ relatives. He said the tickets cost PHP6,000 each.
Charlie then deposited PHP180,000 into the same bank account.
Charlie only found out he was scammed when he had a meeting with Padernal himself.
According Padernal, he fears that the people behind the scam may be insiders. Thus, he has asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct the investigation.
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF are currently doing probes on the Mamsapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
