Ex-Cebu City police chief sued by own pa for fraud

CEBU CITY — A former city police chief was sued by his own father for allegedly forging his signature to acquire possession of the family’s property in Daanbantayan.

Gorgonio Benatiro Sr., a former councilor of the town, filed a charge of falsification of documents against his son, Hiram Benatiro, with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Gorgonio narrated that in October 1995, he took out a P450,000 loan with the Philippine National Bank using a 330-square-meter piece of property in Barangay Tapilon as collateral.

But when he had difficulty settling the loan, Hiram, to avert foreclosure, allegedly offered to redeem the mortgaged property on condition that it be transferred to his name.

Gorgonio said he agreed to his son’s offer because the deal included a right to repurchase with no fixed period stipulated as to when he could buy back the property.

After the deed of sale was done, Hiram allegedly got all the copies of the documents, ostensibly to be notarized but never gave his father a copy.

Gorgonio said it was only recently that he obtained copies of the documents from other sources and that to his shock, found that Hiram had altered the agreement.

Gorgonio said Hiram made it appear in the deed of sale that he only had five years to repurchase the property when they had agreed to a no-time limitation.

Gorgonio also discovered that Hiram forged his signature in the application for clearance with the bank to have the title to the property released to him.

The case is the second major controversy to involve Benatiro.

The first was his supposed failure to supervise his men during the arrest of three alleged big-time drug pushers, for which reason the case against them had been considerably weakened. It was because of this he was relieved as city police chief. — Freeman News Service