NBI nabs 4 men doing illegal notary services

The National Bureau of Investigation arrested four men for allegedly masquerading as lawyers and engaging in notary services along Sanciangco Street yesterday afternoon.

NBI operatives simul-taneously swooped down the stalls occupied by Antonio Real, Hilarion Galgo, Antonio Binarao, Jr. and Marcelino Inodio - each claiming to represent some lawyers.

Real performed notary service allegedly for a certain lawyer Sergio Monzolin, Jr., Galgo for a certain lawyer Patrick Benedicto, Binarao for a certain lawyer Vernardo Saren, and Inodio for a certain lawyer Cornelio Anadeo.

Real, Galgo and Binarao claimed they did not know that the people who commissioned them to do the notarial service were not real lawyers. They said they were just offered to do the job in exchange for half of the income.

Inodio, later known as a former administrative clerk of Atlas Mining, admitted that he was never aware from the start that what he has been doing was illegal. But he said that, even if he knew then that it was illegal, poverty forced him to take the job.

Inodio said his illegal notarial services and typing job have been his bread-and-butter. He said the notary service and typing jobs made him earn between P300 and P500 a day, which has been enough to feed his wife and three children.

"Ako ra man ning napulot ang dry seal sir sa jeep paingon sa Cagayan niadtong nag-eskwela pa ko didto sa Mindanao niadtong 1970," Inodio said. For a while he kept the dry seal until he lost his job in Atlas Mining.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City chapter alleged that the notary services of Saren, Anadeo, Monzolin, Jr. and Benedicto-represented by the four arrested men-were illegal because a check with the IBP-Manila confirmed they were never members of the bar.

IBP-Cebu City president Alex Tolentino promptly sought for assistance from the NBI, which in turn conducted an entrapment operation against the four "bogus lawyers."

Four NBI agents posed as clients for notary services and each of them went to the respective tables of the four "lawyers" along the sidewalk. Immediately after the "lawyers" signed to notarize the documents and accepted the P50-marked money, the NBI agents arrested them.

The NBI also seized several dry seals, stamp pads and the tables with the signage that announces acceptance of notary services.

Tolentino said that, aside from the four, there are about six to seven more who have been masquerading as lawyers and providing notary services in some parts of the city.

He warned the public not to engage the services of the people on the sidewalk because they are not authorized to do so. A person legally doing the notary will not do it on the sidewalk, he said.

Tolentino said the four men the NBI arrested will be charged with usurpation of authority at city prosecutor's office today.