CEBU, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation yesterday filed two counts of falsification of public documents charges against two suspected members of an organized group engaged in the manufacture of fake business permits, diplomas, transcripts of records and other public and private documents.
Complaints for alleged violations of Article 172 in relation to Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code were filed against Oliver Rosaopan and Ronnie Primaco before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.
Supervising Agent Rennan Augustus Oliva said the two respondents can expect more charges as soon as the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the National Statistics Office can certify that the documents seized from Rosaopan and Primaco are indeed bogus.
The NBI recovered several suspected fake documents during a raid of the respondents’ shop along Junquera St. last Friday. Among the documents recovered were NSO accountable forms and tax identification number cards.
The NBI also recovered several fake transcripts of records from various schools and universities in Cebu like the University of Cebu, University of San Jose Recoletos, University of San Carlos and Southwestern University.
Last Friday, Rosaopan and Primaco were caught on the act of manufacturing a fake business permit and T.O.R. of the UC College of Nursing. The duo were caught in the act of receiving the P2,500 marked-money as payment for the fake business permit and transcript of record that an NBI undercover agent ordered from them Thursday last week.
The suspects demanded P4,300 as payment for the bogus nursing T.O.R. of UC and P1,500 for the fake business permit. NBI covert operatives made a down payment and promised to pay the P2,500 balance upon pick-up of the documents.
The operation stemmed from a request for investigation from Mayor Tomas Osmeña following the discovery of the fake business permits of the five outlets of Kentucky Fried Chicken two weeks ago.
Aside from the city government, UC also acted as complainant upon learning that among the documents manufactured by the suspects were documents from the school.
After the entrapment, the NBI immediately served the search warrant that Regional Trial Court Judge Gabriel Ingles issued on July 21 against Rosaopan and Primaco.
Subject of the search warrant was the Revilo’s Signmaster managed by both Rosaopan and Primaco. — Fred P. Languido/JMO (THE FREEMAN)