15 Fil-Chinese hunted for credit card fraud

National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Ricardo de Leon ordered yesterday a massive manhunt for 15 Chinese-Filipinos believed to be behind a credit card syndicate in the country.

The identities of the suspects were discovered during tactical interrogation of Malaysian Toi Kok Soon, 20, and seven other Filipinos arrested on Friday in Makati City while in the act of purchasing goods using fake credit cards in a shopping mall.

The suspects claimed they started operations years back and were operating not only in Metro Manila but in other key cities like Cebu and Davao.

"We are trying to establish at present how extensive is their nationwide operations," said De Leon.

He refused to identify though the 15 Chinese-Filipinos for fear of jeopardizing on-going follow-up operations. "We have good leads against them. We expect more arrests in the coming days," De Leon told The Star.

Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco, head of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes (PCTC), and officials of the Credit Card Association met with Superintendent Rogelio Damazo of the NCRPO’s Intelligence Division last Jan. 20 to discuss ways to combat rising cases of credit card fraud in the country.

"We are conducting simultaneous operations not only in Metro Manila but in other key cities and we are closing in on them," said Damazo.

Soon and his cohorts were arrested after one week of surveillance by a police team headed by Damazo. Arrested with Soon were Isabel Alapad, 51; Rolando Conson, 45; Roberto Labra, 41; Marilou de Guzman, 50; Ludy Bondoc, 46; Raffy Briones, 25, and Wilfredo Crudoy, 57. They yielded various kinds of fake credit cards and P15,000 worth of newly-purchased goods.

The suspects are presently detained at the NCRPO detention center in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.