5 nabbed in Recto for selling fake gov't documents

Five individuals allegedly involved in the selling of fake government documents were arrested during an entrapment operation in Recto, Manila on Thursday.

According to Mark Salazar’s 24 Oras report Thursday, a joint operation of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior Local and Government (DILG) in the district known as a source of counterfeit documents yielded fake driver’s licenses, land titles and manager’s check, among others.

Authorities noted that the forgeries were similar to genuine documents. 

“Sa hindi expert hindi madetermine kung peke o totoo nagagamit siya sa mga crime pati sa for example sa SIM card,  pag nagre-register sa sim card, di ba valid IDs ang hinihingi ng mga telecom companies natin. Enough na itong fake ids na ito,” Police Captain Benjamin Tan, Chief Legal Officer of Special Projects Group-DILG/PNP said.

(Non-experts would have a hard time figuring out if the documents are fake or not, so these can be used for committing crimes. Even in registering SIM cards, telecom companies only ask for government-issued IDs.)

“Nagagamit na siya sa iba't ibang mga scams. Ang mga victims usually ay 'yung mga normal natin kababayan na wala naman silang capability na i-verify yung authenticity  ng mga documents,” said Tan.

(These can be used for a lot of scams. The victims are usually ordinary Filipinos who lack the means to verify the authenticity of official documents.)

The suspects were arrested after they offered their services to undercover operatives during the entrapment operation.

“Based on our intelligence and investigation, mayroon sila minsan na mga hard drive din na sinasaksak lang nila. Tsaka lang nila isasalpak yung pangalan pati picture nung nagpapagawa. Pagtapos lang gawin, ipu-pull out lang nila kaya wala ka ng makikita,” Tan added. 

(Based on our intelligence and investigation, the suspects have a hard drive that they only use when transacting with customers. When someone wants a fake document, they will only plug that in and edit the name and pictures.)

Authorities said they will also come after the names found on the fraudulent documents.—Sundy Locus/RF, GMA Integrated News