8 nabbed for phone hacking

Police rounded up eight people during simultaneous raids Monday in Metro Manila and neigbhoring provinces for defrauding the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) of at least P10 million in overseas or international calls.

Metro police chief Director Ricardo de Leon said his men recovered P2 million worth of wire-tapping equipment from suspects, Romeo Palo, 41; Jonathan Miranda; Zoilo Castillanos, 49; Marie Paz Zabit, 20; Rowena Capasio, 29; Petronelia Pauis, 24; Vivian Barangue, 30, and Julie Cabansag, 23. They are now undergoing tactical interrogation.

The groups’s mastermind, whom De Leon refused to identify, is now being hunted.

PLDT management reported to De Leon the group’s "ship to shore" long distance or international telephone service, which they said has deprived the company of millions of pesos in income.

The operators of the establishments illegally connect their powerful radio equipment to PLDT telephone lines, enabling them to make "on board" calls, or calls originating from foreign ships at sea to be patched through PLDT telephone networks.

Armed with search warrants, elements of the Eastern Police District and the National Capital Regional Police Office swooped down on "ship to shore" establishments in Parañaque City, Antipolo City, Taguig and San Pedro, Laguna and arrested their operators.

Confiscated from the raided establishments were a number of telephone instruments, computers, radios, high frequency radio tranceivers, interface boxes and other electronic and electrical devices equipment used in patching calls.

According to De Leon, the group has been operating for six months now. – Non Alquitran