ANGELES CITY — A lady operator of a travel agency and some of her staff are facing large-scale estafa case for their alleged failure to deliver services despite payment made by the victims in separate occasions since last month of 2018.
FLYTDOTCOM, which also offers tour packages and ticketing of various local and international airlines, with business address at 2nd Floor of GMT Stall, Sto. Entierro Street, Barangay Sto. Cristo, in this city, duped more than 70 persons who booked for flights, plane tickets and hotels in tourist destination areas in the Philippines and abroad.
SPO3 Lea de los Reyes, head of the investigation branch of the CIDG-Pampanga Field Unit, said complainants against FLYTDOTCOM trooped to CIDG-PFU office where they lodged complaints against Maricris Simsuangco, proprietor of FLYTDOTCOM.
Also named in the complaints were Fatima Sarmiento, Giezel Timbol, Tems Ramos and Aura Gamboa, all staff of FLYTDOTCOM.
The suspects, De Los Reyes said, collected huge amounts of cash from the victims in exchange of plane tickets, itinerary and hotel accommodations in various destinations including Boracay, Puerto Princesa, El Nido, Bohol, Cebu and Hong Kong.
De los Reyes said some of the victims are “balikbayans”, who want to spend the holiday season with their families in resort islands and other beautiful places in the countryside only to be dismayed in the end.
One of the complainants, a certain Francis Nero Pangan, of Apalit, Pampanga narrated to CIDG-PFU that he paid more than 150,000 for 18 persons for their travel and accommodations in Boracay. Their names did not appear in the flight manifest when checked.
Other complainants Irene Rogono and Geena Clemente, both of Angeles City, who claimed they paid in full P307,000 for 14 persons and P102,000 respectively for flights and accommodations in Hong Kong last December.
SInce the scam broke out, De los Reyes said hate mails and threatening remarks flooded the official website of FLYTDOTCOM.
De los Reyes said FLYTDOTCOM’s office has been padlocked as the suspects cannot be located as of press time. She said no one is answering the phones.
“The suspects might have gone into hiding for fear of being swarmed by the victims, ” De los Reyes said.
Large-scale estafa offense will be filed in court against the suspects.-Jess Malabanan