Several Bacolod residents are calling for justice against persons who allegedly failed to pay them back for millions of pesos they invested for the recovery of “trillions of dollars” from the estate of a deceased   Negrense,  in the United States and China.

At a press conference at the Business Inn in Bacolod City yesterday, Joan Briones furnished the media a copy of a joint complaint affidavit filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Bacolod City on Nov. 15, 2003, and the complainants narrated how they were lured into parting with their hard-earned money with the promise that they would earn huge amounts of interests.

Most of the “investors” are retirees in their twilight years, and one lost not only her jewelry but her building in Bacolod and is now very sickly, Briones said.

As far as they know, about P50 million has remained unpaid to those who fell victim  from Negros Occidental, while there were also others who “invested” from other  parts of the country,  as well  as British and Australian nationals, Briones  said.

Named respondents in the joint complaint affidavit filed before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s  Office were Sylvia Asparen, Clara Moncado vda. de Pabon of Victorias City, Mauricio Ulep,   Nenita de Vera Alquizar, and Samuel Santiago.

Among the complainants are Pacifico Adorio III, Virginia Adorio, Catherine Apuhin, Alberto Arceo, Joji Larraga, Natie Caseñas, Ester Tan, Noel Saligumba, Maria Nilda Tan Saligumba and  Florita  Briones.

In their joint affidavit, they said they were “literary taken for a ride  for more than a decade by the respondents.”

“We have suffered grave damages and loss running in the amount of multimillions as represented by the undertakings and the actual amount Clara and Sylvia received from us,” they said.

STARTED IN 2000

They said the acts of the respondents began  in 2000  onwards  when Clara Pabon approached them and  other investors, saying she was an heir  to trillions of dollars in the settlement of the estate of  Gen. Hilario Moncado pending before  the Regional Trial Court Branch 58   of Bacolod City.

They said Pabon told them  that even a one percent share of the estate would surely translate into millions  but she needed money  to process the case, the claims,  and for her lawyers, especially because the bulk of the huge estate allegedly  is located in the United States.

“She showed us blank undertakings with proportionate shares convincing, promising and  ensuring to us that if we invest with her, the returns for the amounts we finance would be higher if not doubled  because of the very huge amount of the estate. She assured us that the said undertakings are as good as cash,” they said.

TRAVEL TO U.S.

They said that on two occasions, at their own expense,  Pabon went with some of them to the United States  for the purpose of recovering the property  of the estate, saying they would get  back their money with very big interests after the trips.

Believing in the credibility of Pabon’s claim, the complainants said they invested added amounts to Pabon  for which she executed  and issued undertakings representing future payments plus huge profits once she recovered the  property of the estate as she was the court-appointed administratix.

They said Pabon asked for additional sums of investments from each of them allegedly for court fees, mailing expenses, document preparations, hotel and hospitalization expenses, fare money, and medicine, including bail bonds for herself and her daughter Sylvia Asparen.

Later, Sylvia Asparen informed them that she took over as administratix of the estate, and made the same promises her mother made to them, the complainants said in their joint affidavit.

This time, Asparen claimed they found property of the estate in China totaling $2 billion, deposited in the Bank of China, the complainants said.

MORE MONEY ASKED

Asparen inveigled them to shell out more money to establish a foundation for the recovery of the money in China in exchange for huge returns, they also said.

To convince them of her claim, Asparen allegedly opened an account with a local bank using a check for P2 billion of which she showed the opening account details. They later learned that the check was dishonored for non-existent funds, the complainants said.

TRAVEL TO CHINA

They said some of them were then made to go to China with Asparen and Ulep three times  at their own expense. While in China they  opened individual bank accounts with the Bank of China where the recovered money would  allegedly be deposited, the complainants added in their affidavit.

 Samuel Santiago was also in cahoots with Asparen, as he made it appear that he also knew of the existence of the alleged multi-million dollar account in China, the complainants also alleged  in their affidavit.

In fact, complainant Pacifico Adorio III on April 21, 2010 paid $50,000 in China to the alleged contact of Asparen and Ulep in their presence, the joint affidavit said.

5 PERCENT PROMISED

He and others were promised 5 percent of the Moncado bank accounts in China.

The complainants also claimed that Alquizar received money from Natie Caseñas and Pacifico Adorio III, for and in behalf of Asparen, to be used for a trip to China.

At the press conference, Virginia Adorio, 72, said she was speaking out to make others aware of what happened so they do not fall victim to parting with their hard-earned money, like her.

She also narrated how she had gone with Pabon to the United State in the quest to recover the estate where they were promised a share for their investments.

Others who spoke at the press conference of having lost money were Alberto Arceo, 72, Natie Caseñas, Pacifico Adorio III, oversees Filipino worker Noel Saligumba, and Catherine Apuhin.

COURT ORDER IN 2000 YET

The DAILY STAR had reported that on July 10, 2006, then Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Gorgonio Ybañez had ordered Pabon and persons acting on her behalf, to stop borrowing money from financiers to allegedly fund the recovery of supposed billions of dollars from the Moncado estate.

Ybañez said it had come to his attention that certain people were going around looking for loans to allegedly hasten the release of the money that is subject of an intestate estate case pending before his court.

In his order, Ybañez said that the ploy of these persons is to tell the financiers that the money of the estate had already been deposited in banks by the judge.

The case was filed in the 1960s and “for decades now, this Intestate Estate of Moncado does not anymore have even just a single centavo, and does not anymore own a piece of real property long before  the time this case was transferred to this court from the RTC of Cebu City,” Ybañez had said then.*CPG

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