By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Police have filed perjury charges against a man who pretended to be a
Harvard University law student and claimed he was robbed by a taxi driver in Quezon City.
Chief Inspector Enrico Figueroa of the Quezon City Police District filed charges of false testimony and using a fictitious name against Richard Sangalang, 24, before the city prosecutor’s office.
Sangalang, of Capas, Tarlac, had claimed to be a Filipino-American from Beverly Hills, California, who was studying at Harvard and who came to the country to attend a relative’s wedding in Baguio City.
He claimed that at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, he hailed a taxi driven by Peniquito Gallardo, who instead of taking him to the nearest bus station where he could a board a bus for Baguio, drove to Cubao, Quezon City, where he and a cohort divested him of his cash and valuables worth $10,000.
Police went as far as arresting the driver but subsequently became suspicious of Sangalang, who had introduced himself as Nathan Santos Smith, when a check with the Bureau of Immigration at NAIA did not turn up the name Smith among recent arrivals.
The police’s suspicions were later bolstered when Sangalang could not tell them in which US state Harvard was located. He also reportedly let slip a Filipino phrase, although he supposedly could not speak the language.
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