COTABATO CITY — The police clamped down three individuals, disguised as employees of the Bangsamoro Social Services ministry, who duped hundreds of villagers with promises of monthly cash allowances from the agency in exchange for a P500 registration fee each.

Local executives in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte told reporters on Wednesday that they will help the police and officials of the Ministry of Social Services and Development-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MSSD-BARMM) build estafa and usurpation of authority cases against suspect.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De C. Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Wednesday that the three suspects, disguising as MSSD-BARMM employees, were arrested on Tuesday, during an entrapment operation in Block 5 in Barangay Awang, not too distant from the Cotabato Airport.

Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Chief Lt. Col. Esmael A. Madin and Mr. De Guzman told reporters separately that the suspects were immediately arrested after receiving P500 as “registration fee” for their scheme from an informant aware of their illegal activities.

Community leaders in Datu Odin Sinsuat and nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte had confirmed to police investigators and to reporters that the suspects had deceived no fewer than 700 villagers in far-flung areas.

BARMM’s Social Services Minister Raissa H. Jajurie, and his subordinate regional officials separately told reporters on Wednesday that they are grateful to the Datu Odin Sinsuat police force, the local officials and the tipsters who cooperated in plotting the entrapment operation.

The suspects used a house in Barangay Awang as a base for their illegal activities, which is near the border of Datu Odin Sinsuat and Cotabato City, the capital of BARMM.

One of them had been tagged in the same criminal modus, using the office of one of the 80-members of the Bangsamoro regional parliament as front for his shrewd activity.

Ms. Jajurie said they will release documents stating that the three suspects are not employees of the MSSD-BARMM in support of the efforts of the police to prosecute them in court. — John Felix M. Unson

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