Woman using fake IDs arrested

CEBU, Philippines - A woman was arrested after allegedly using counterfeit identification cards and documents to transact with a telecommunications company in Cebu City last Friday.

The suspect reported her real name as Rochelle Dacalos Gabales, 35, a resident of Barangay Ibabao, Mandaue City, and a native of Carmen town. She uses the aliases Rochelle Durano Gabales and Ma. Christine Jamago Jupista.

Chief Insp. Bonifacio Garciano, head of the Cebu City Investigation and Detective Management Branch, said the suspect transacted with the telecommunications company for a cellular phone plan more than once, using different IDs.

The company’s security officers, Jayson Guting and Gerardo Davis Jr., arrested the suspect while she was attempting a fourth transaction at the company’s branch in a mall along N. Bacalso Ave. at 12:30 p.m. last Friday.

The arresting officers recovered from the suspect two IDs bearing different names with the same photo as the suspect, application documents for the phone plan with different middle names, two bank cards and a mall advantage card bearing Jupista’s name.

SPO2 Bezaleel Olmedo Jr. of the IDMB said the crime was traced after the employee checked if “Rochelle Dacalos Gabales”, who was supposedly applying for the plan, has had a previous application.

The company found out that there was another Rochelle Gabales with the same photo but with “Durano” as the middle name, Olmedo further said.

Suspicious, the security officers asked from Gabales another ID and discovered another ID from her possession bearing the name Jupista with the same photo as Gabales.

She was arrested and was turned over to the IDMB-7. During questioning, the suspect, who claimed to be a former call center agent, admitted to the crime and alleged that she had an accomplice.

“She said there are two of them. They use her ID and once they have a cellphone they dispose of it and her share is P2,000,” Olmeda said in Cebuano.

A charge for violation of the Anti-Alias Law was filed against the suspect before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office last Saturday.

Olmeda said representatives from the telecommunications company will appear before their office today to file a separate case for estafa against Gabales should they verify the amount of gadgets taken by the suspect. — /BRP (FREEMAN)