3 women nabbed for selling fake brandy

MANILA, Philippines – Police arrested three women for allegedly selling and distributing fake brandy in successive operations in Quiapo and Ermita, Manila.

Manila Police District (MPD) intelligence chief Superintendent Ernesto Fojas Jr. identified the suspects as vendors Imelda Siason, 55, and Marivic Jayme, 46; and Expedita Ramacho, alias Ditas Camacho, 58, the alleged supplier.

The arrest of the suspects was in relation to a complaint by Vergara Mamangun Jamero Gonzales Law Offices against “Aling Imelda” and “Aling Marivic” who were allegedly selling fake Fundador brandy in violation of the intellectual property rights (IPR) law, according to Chief Inspector Fernando Opelanio, chief of the MPD’s district police intelligence operations unit (DPIOU).

Together with lawyer Hope Romero and Fundador product specialist Noah Arias, DPIOU operatives went to Villalobos street in Quiapo. Opelanio said his men were able to buy 14 one-liter bottles of Fundador and eight 1.75-liter bottles of the same brandy for only P9,700 using marked money.

When Arias confirmed that the brandy was fake, police posted nearby arrested the two. Siason and Jayme named a certain “Marlyn” as their source of the fake brandy.

In a succeeding entrapment operation in Ermita, Arias recognized Marlyn as the same Expedita Ramacho who is the subject of an arrest warrant for violating the IPR law.