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A Quezon City court has ordered the arrest of the members of a land
scam syndicate which has victimized several individuals who were
enticed into buying lands in the provinces.
Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Alexander
Balut issued a warrant of arrest for Delia Ledesma Belita, the
leader of the syndicate, and her daughters Cheryl Belita-Dava,
Genevieve Belita and Florence Belita-Olsen, and son, Delber, along
with other conspirators.
The suspects are currently facing eight counts
of syndicated estafa, a non-bailable offense.
The case stemmed from a complaint filed by
Director Efren Meneses, chief of the Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes
Division of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), upon the
request of a group of businessmen who were victimized by the
syndicate.
According to Antonio Sy, president of Spencer
Realty and Development Corp., one of the victims lost almost P100
million to the syndicate. The modus operandi of the group was to
entice businessmen into buying large tracts of raw land in the
provinces.
Sy said, the syndicate, which operates under the
trade name IBL Realty Development Corp., pretend to be the
authorized agents of land owners who are selling their properties.
After collecting millions of pesos from their
victims, the syndicate’s members either pocketed the money or
bought the property for themselves possibly for reselling to other
parties.
The NBI has designated Supervising Agent Ronaldo
Aguto to spearhead the creation of a task force to immediately
arrest the members of the Belita gang.
Lawyer Ferdie Topacio, legal counsel of Sy, said
the victims have offered a P100,000 reward for the arrest of each
suspect and P50,000 for the conspirators.
“We wanted to make public their [suspects]
identities so that people will not be victimized by the group,”
Topacio told members of the press.
-- Jefferson Antiporda
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