Cops nab suspected ‘brains’ in rent-sangla scam

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has arrested the alleged “brains” behind the rent-sangla scam.
(Photo: Philippine National Police/Facebook)

MANILA—The Philippine National Police (PNP) has arrested the alleged “brains” behind the rent-sangla scam.

The PNP Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) arrested the alleged rent-sangla scam mastermind in Laguna province on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.

According to the PNP-HPG, operatives of the Special Operating Team, Regional Highway Patrol Unit 4A arrested Rafaela Anunciacion, 56, on the strength of a warrant of arrest for the case of estafa.

The warrant of arrest was issued by San Pedro City, Laguna Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 93 Presiding Judge Francisco Pano.

The group of Anunciacion was allegedly responsible for the carnapping of 457 motor vehicles, which are all “rented” cars.

The PNP-HPG has recovered 107 of the 457 carnapped cars during a series of operations in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon.

It was noted that the syndicate runs a sophisticated operation as many of its victims were even policemen whom they duped out of their hard-earned savings by convincing them to invest their money in a car-rental business.

The syndicate allegedly made off with over 1,800 cars since it started operating in 2007, and so far, 900 of these have been recovered by the PNP-HPG and other law enforcement agencies.

Around 1,800 motor vehicles were reportedly involved in this case of large-scale estafa thru the “Rent-Sangla” scheme

Several persons had been arrested and are now under investigation for alleged involvement in this illegal activity.

Cases were filed against the mastermind of the rent-sangla scam and her 8 cohorts for conning over a thousand victims out of their brand new vehicles and billions of pesos in loans.

The group’s modus would be to entice their first victim to lease their vehicle to the group supposedly for use in a rent-a-car business, which the group then pawned to their second victim, where both ended up getting swindled.

Cases of carjacking, swindling and syndicated estafa have been filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Anunciacion and syndicate members Anastacia Cauyan, Sabina Torrea, Tychicus Nambia, Eliseo Cortez and two others.

The DOJ has already issued a lookout bulletin against the remaining suspects who are still at-large.