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VOLUME XXIV No. 11
Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines
September 27, 2009 issue
 

Bethany Village cahoots charged of estafa

 

The associates of the supposed owner of the botched Bethany Village Subdivision now faced charges of estafa after the City Prosecutor found merits on the complaint filed sometime in May. The case is now elevated to the Regional Trial Court based in Tagbilaran City based on the information filed by City Prosecutor Romeo Chatto on September 14. Being officers of Bethany Village Subdivision, a mass housing project in Tiptip District, Tagbilaran City , Carlito Pinoliad, Eugenia Pinoliad and Julieta Pinoliad-Cabibil allegedly conspired on November 17, 2006 to defraud its proprietor - Restituto Tan.

With grave abuse of confidence, the three allegedly misappropriated a total of P450,000 which was the accumulated amount collected as reservation and processing fees from 13 buyers by spending it for their personal use, instead of remitting it. Chatto also stated in the information that the three refused to turn over the money, despite several verbal and written demands by Tan. When the complaint was still at the Office of the City Prosecutor, the three filed a motion for reconsideration on July 15, but was turned down in order issued on August 18. After the failure to come up with documents that could give merits to their motion for reconsideration to the order of filing charges at the proper court.

Their second motion for reconsideration was also junked in an order dated September 8. Starting the month of May, at the height of controversy, Tan posted an announcement advising clients who had paid the reservation fee to see him when they needed to verify and confirm their reservation fees. The collapse of the Rural Bank of Maribojoc earlier was tied up to the botched deal to develop a multi-million subdivision project in Tiptip district this city. The unfolding drama also soured the relations of two long time associates—Restituto Tan, the bank owner, and the Pinoliad siblings. Spanning 40 years of friendship, what once was an epitome of close friends doing business with each other, is now becoming the worst of enemies.

As close friends before, they are now locked in a bitter legal battle resulting in the filing of estafa by Tan against his former associates. The root cause of the legal skirmish was the plan to rehabilitate the rural bank of Maribojoc when it was found to be suffering from inadequate capital This triggered the eventual closure of the bank. The friendly relations broke up after the Pinoloads—Carlito, a CPA, Julieta and Eugenia, an architect, proposed to Tan to develop a four-hectare property in Tiptip. As envisioned, the subdivision project was to sell houses and lots to interested buyers and made money out of it to cover the capital deficiency of the bank.

 
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