Crime group imitates priest’s voice to raise funds

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

CAMP Alagar has ordered its cybercrime unit to start an investigation into a group that has been using a Roman Catholic priest to solicit money from business establishments here.

Chief Supt. Lyndel Desquitado, police director for Region 10, ordered this after the priest, Msgr. Elmer Abacahin, complained that the group has been deceiving people at his expense.

The group allegedly uses a person who sounds like Abacahin in calling and asking people for financial support. Police said they were looking into reports that similar incidents took place, too, in Maramag in Bukidnon, and El Salvador City in Misamis Oriental.

Abacahin said he was informed that the group solicited some P15 thousand an establishment supposedly in his name and the Alubijid parish.

“Mura sab og tinuod kay naa ko’y mga bisita sa parish mga foreigner. Nag-solicit sila og load and pagkaon. Nabulyaso sila sa dihang mi-anha ang manager sa tindahan sa simbahan,” he said.

Abacahin’s complaint prompted the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) to issue an advisory about the new modus operandi.

Supt. Lemuel Gonda, chief for operations and planning of the city police, said, “Sa una text-text ra man kadto. Karon tawag na. Gamiton nila ang ngalan niadtong mga well-known personality. Na-awat gyud ang tingog. They probably using a new cellphone technology,” he said.