BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – A suspected swindler was arrested yesterday around 10:15 a.m. in an entrapment in Barangay Dungon B, Jaro district.
The 47-year-old Josefino Lotona posed as an employee of the Iloilo City Urban Poor Affairs Office (Icupao) and peddled a non-existent low-cost housing unit supposedly in Barangay Sambag, Jaro.
According to Dungon B barangay councilman Ernesto Alenciaga, he checked with Icupao and discovered that Lotona was not connected with the office.
He and the Jaro police then planned an entrapment.
The suspect’s modus operandi was to ask down payment (between P350 to P500) from his victims so they could supposedly immediately transfer to the house.
Alenciaga pretended to be an interested client. Lotona took from him P500 and was immediately arrested by policemen.
Other victims of Lotona were Mary Ann Anoncio, Joselyn Ormillo, Rosalie Esterio and Freddie Osal, all of Barangay Dungon B.
At the Jaro police station, Lotona told the police he needed money for a sick daughter.
Lotona was a resident of Barangay Calubihan, Jaro./PN
