OLONGAPO City: The sister of Castillejos town Mayor Wilma Billman and 5 other employees of the Zambales Electric Cooperative II (ZAMECO II) were arrested by Operatives of the Zambales Criminal Investigation and Detection Team
in an entrapment operation Friday morning.
CIDT provincial chief, Police Chief Inspector Rogelio Penones Jr. identified the suspects as ZAMECO II collector Judy Dominguez, Eunice Santigaio, Ruel Gonong, construction foreman; Freddie Dela Cruz, utility man; Nelson Falloria, driver, and Meria Fe Divinoto, warehouse supervisor.
Peñones said the group has been under surveillance for several weeks before they were arrested.
ZAMECO II general manager Fidel Correa, in an interview, estimated that Dominguez’ group allegedly siphoned off some P115 million from the cooperative’s daily cash collections since November 27, 2009.
Dominguez is the sister of Castillejos town mayor Wilma Billman.
In a joint affidavit, Zambales CIDT operatives PO3 Melquiades Ombao, PO3 Fred Pimentel, PO2 Ulysses Serna and PO2 Mercenario Antonio said that Dominguez and Santiago allegedly handed the money to Gonong and dela Cruz, while Falloria and Divinoto waited outside the station.
‘After they completed the transaction, PO3 Antonio gave the signal to PCI Peñones, prompting the other team members to respond and backed us up in frisking the suspects,’ the operatives recalled.
Peñones said that upon frisking, four bundles of cash, amounting to P287,431.72, were allegedly confiscated from the backpack of Gonong. The amount represented the cooperative’s cash collection for the day.
Correa explained that last December 1st, 2009, he ordered the coop’s cashier to remit the daily cash collections only to duly designated collection supervisors.
‘This group refused to follow my instructions. We later found out that the money they collected from our member-clients were not being deposited in the coop’s depositary bank. This prompted us to seek the help of the police,’ Correa said.
The cooperative filed a case of qualified theft against the suspects before the Olongapo City courts.
Castillejos Mayor Wilma Billman could not be reached for comments.
