Budol-budol queen falls

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    ANGELES CITY – Her audacity finally did her in.
     

    Editha Cortez Medina of Samsonville Subdivision in Barangay Dau , Mabalacat was arrested by the police after she appeared in court here last Friday unaware that a warrant of arrest was already issued against her.

    Medina , who gained notoriety as Budol-budol queen, appeared in the sala of Judge Philbert Yturralde of the Regional Trial Court to attend a civil case filed by complainant Fernando Capati for garnishment. Medina , through her lawyer Augorio Pamintuan filed a motion to answer Capati’s complaint.

    SPO3 Rollie M. Reyes quickly arrested Medina but she immediately posted a P40,000 bail. However, before she was released, Reyes was able to check the background of Medina and discovered that she has standing warrants of arrest for estafa in Iba, Zambales and another lodged before RTC Branch 56 in 2005. Instead of getting a favorable decision to cash in on Capati’s money, Medina ended up inside the Angeles City Police Office Station 6 detention cell unable to post bail for her other cases since it was a weekend.

    On Thursday, a day before her court appearance, City Prosecutor Oliver Garcia elevated Capati’s complaint of estafa against Medina and a subsequent warrant of arrest was issued.

    Earlier, Capati filed an estafa case against Medina and her alleged cohorts Edward B. Azarga, Ivy Lopez, Sheik Mohammed K. Al Habtoot, Engr. Orlando C. Bobis, Manny Gonzales, Anthony Young, Marites Roque Santillan, Federico B. Javier, Annabel Hao and a certain Josie for defrauding him of P2 million.

    In his complaint, Capati said Medina was able to convince him to buy “oil separator” substance contained in a box. He said Medina presented her cohorts as buyers of his building in Sindalan, City of San Fernando . But during the course of their transaction the suspects told Capati that they are into the “recycling” business and are looking for a certain substance that could separate used engine oil and turned it into diesel fuel.

    At the same time, another group led by Lopez pretended to buy Capati’s other property up for sale in the real estate market, the Sydney Hotel along the perimeter fence of the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City. During the transaction with the Lopez group who included Sheik Mohammed, the alleged buyer of the hotel, they told Capati that they were also into the business of “importation” and are looking for a buyer of their substance which can be used to separate used engine oil into diesel. They gave Capati a sample of their product contained in a small box which he sold to Medina ’s group for P25,000. In turn, Capati paid Lopez’s group for P20,000 which earned him a neat profit of P5,000.

    Unknown to Capati, the two groups were in cahoots with each other and were playing him all along.

    They were able to convince Capati to buy their products and delivered nine boxes to Sydney Hotel. For his part, Capati was told to wire P1 million to the BDO account of Santillan at Trinoma in Quezon City. But Capati told the group that he had no account at BDO and was told to wire the money to Javier’s account at BPI in trinoma. Having done that, he wired another P1 millio to Javier’s BPI account the next day.

    But Capati said upon inspection of the boxes, he found out that it contained ordinary flour and not the oil separator substance. He said despite repeated calls, the suspects suddenly cannot be contacted.

    Capati said he immediately called up the BPI in Trinoma to stop the payment. But he was already too late. Only P480,000 remained from the P2 million.

    Capati then went to court to file a garnishment case to finally stop the money transfer. But to my surprise, Capati said, Atty. Pamintuan showed up and filed a motion to answer which the judge set on March 19. Capati said he was just wishing his luck that Medina would show up in court last Friday, March 19. To his amazement, Medina showed up to stop Capati’s garnishment and collect the money. She was arrested instead.

    Capati said he is now appealing to the BPI officials in Trinoma to release the cctv security camera recording to nail down the other suspects involved in the fraudulent transaction known in the local parlance as Budol-budol.

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