MikeLigalig.com

Carmen Mayor Conchita “Che-Che” Toribio Delos Reyes skirted arrest last Thursday after posting bail two days earlier for the charges of duping several persons involving thousands of pesos more than 19 years ago.
By Wednesday, when the news broke out over dyRD Inyong Alagad, the lady mayor dared to have her arrested by the police upon her arrival at the Tagbilaran City airport from Manila, but without informing the public that she already posted bail at the Municipal Trial Court in Bacoor, Cavite.
 
When DYRD's Wednesday episode of Inyong Alagad broke out the news, Delos Reyes was in Manila and expressed disgust through a phone-patch interview with another radio station as she dared authorities to meet and arrest her  once she would arrive at the Tagbilaran City airport.
She lashed back at dyRD by describing the report as fabricated upon the maneuver of her political rivals.
However, it was learned that Tagbilaran City Mayor Dan Lim and Councilor Doni Piquero had been spotted at the court in Cavite to bail on her behalf early this week.
Efforts to get the side of Delos Reyes proved futile after she announced in her interview with the other station that she would refuse all interviews by DYRD.   Top-rated "Inyong Alagad" program hosted by Boy Guingguing and Chito Visarra called her mobile phone last Wednesday but to no avail since she did not take the calls.
However, the posting of bail on her behalf proved that indeed the dyRD report was true and that she managed to get temporary liberty at the cost of P6,000.00 for each of the 16 or a total amount of P96,000.00 while bail for the thirty four cases for violation of the Bouncing Checks Law was set at P2,000.00 for each case for a total amount of P68,000.00.
Moreover, the Alagad anchor was able to show the court-certified warrants of arrest for the mayor of Carmen.
The total of P196,000 bail was posted last Tuesday, November 27, a day before she challenged to be arrested at the city airport upon her arrival from Manila .
The warrants of arrest were recalled and set aside while the arraignment of Mayor Delos Reyes was set on February 27, 2013 at 1:30 in the afternoon at the Municipal Trial Court in Cities, Bacoor, Cavite .
Delos Reyes is the official candidate for governor of Bohol under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
Adeliza H. Magno-Gingoyon, Presiding Judge of the Fourth Judicial Region, Municipal Trial Court (MTC) of Bacoor, Cavite issued two warrants of arrest – one for 16 counts of estafa and another warrant for 34 counts for violation of Batas Pambansa 22 or the Anti- Bouncing Check Law.
Both warrants were issued October 18, 2010 against a Conchita Ordoñez c/o Atty. Fidel Thaddeus Borja with address at 20th Floor, Security Bank Center, 6776 Ayala Ave. , Makati City.
Atty. Borja, who coincidentally was in Carmen attending another case, when interviewed by the Chronicle last Thursday said that he was not aware of any warrant of arrest addressed to his office under the name of Conchita Ordoñez.
Apparently, Conchita Ordoñez, manager of Zapote Marketing located in Zapote, Bacoor, Cavite turned out to be Carmen Mayor Conchita “Che-Che Toribio delos Reyes.
DISHONORED CHECKS
Among the 34 counts for violation of the Anti- Bouncing Check Law, eight complaints were filed by Virginia Reyes and Leticia Caluya,  accussing Conchita T. Ordoñez for issuing checks from April to November, 1993 that were eventually dishonored by the banks.
A UCPB check for P75,000.00 was allegedly issued by Ordoñez on April 6, 1993 to Reyes but was dishonored and returned for reason “Account Closed”.
Another BPI check for P2,000.00 was issued on April 24, 1993 and was dishonored for the  reason of “Account Closed”.
Three  BPI checks in the amount of P2,000 each were again allegedly issued by Ordoñez on May 15, 22, 29, 1993 but were both returned for “insufficient funds” and “Account Closed”.
On June 12 and 19, 1993, according to Reyes, another two BPI checks were again allegedly issued by Ordoñez in the amount of P2,000.00 each but were again dishonored for reason “Account Closed”.
Again on November 16, 1993 a UCPB check for P2,000.00 was issued by Ordoñez to Leticia Caluya allegedly as payment of a loan by Ordoñez but was dishonored on the ground of “Account Closed”.
Ordoñez was given time to make good the checks she issued but according to complainants “notwithstanding repeated demands made . . . accused did not do so”.
Reyes and Caluya filed their complaints almost a year after the checks bounced.
Cavite Provincial Prosecutor Herminio P. Gervacio approved the filing of the criminal case for violation of Batas Pambansa Bilang 22 and recommended bail for the accused.
Ordoñez was out on bail thru Eastern Assurance & Surety Corporation.
Batas Pambansa Bilang 22 is an act penalizing the making or drawing and issuance of a check without sufficient funds or credit.
Issuing a bouncing check is punishable by imprisonment of not less than thirty days but not more than one year.
A fine may also be meted in the amount of not less than but not more than double the amount of the check which fine shall in no case exceed Two Hundred Thousand Pesos.
DELAYED REF DELIVERY
A copy of one of the sixteen cases for estafa showed that on February 16, 1994,  Conchita Ordoñez, Manager of Zapote Marketing allegedly received P8,700 from a certain Cristina Abad of Ligas, Bacoor, Cavite as payment for one unit of Westinghouse Refrigerator.
Abad, in her complaint docketed as Criminal Case No. 15727 alleged that the refrigerator would be delivered “at once” but was only delivered by Ordoñez “only upon knowing that Cristina Abad filed charges against her”.
Under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code, the offense of estafa is present if there is abuse of confidence,  unfaithfulness and deceit.
ARCHIVED
Although Ordoñez was out on bail since the case was filed in 1994, an issuance of an order of arrest was issued last October 18, 2010 but an order for the cases against Ordoñez to be archived was issued July 15, 2011 for the cases not to remain pending for an indefinite period.
The court also noted that Ordoñez remained at large notwithstanding the October arrest warrants but the archived cases would be revived as soon as the accused is apprehended.
The cases date back to as early as 1993 while the separate arrest warrants for estafa and bouncing checks were all issued on October 18, 2010.
The same copies of the arrest orders provided to the media here as certified by MTC-Bacoor clerk of court Eddie Sarancanlao were obtained by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine National Police (PNP).
The court clerk certified just on November 7 this year the copies of the arrest warrants.
Since the arrest warrants had been out in 2010, it appeared from the record that the accused remained at large notwithstanding the warrants issued until her posting of the bail on Tuesday.
There then also being no return of the warrants and in order that the cases could not remain pending for an indefinite period, the Cavite court ordered on July 15, 2011 to archive the cases but without prejudice to their revival as soon as Delos Reyes is arrested.
DUAL IDENTITY
When news of the warrant of arrests hit the airlanes, a confused public raised questions on the real identity of Conchita Toribio Ordoñez in relation to  Mayor Conchita “Che Che” Toribio Delos Reyes.
To recall, former Carmen Mayor Manuel Molina and Julieta Feliza Torralba filed a petition at the COMELEC to deny due course and cancel the certificate of candidacy and disqualification of Conchita Toribio Delos Reyes.
The petition was filed December 11, 2009.
Delos Reyes was the official candidate for mayor of Lakas Kampi CMD with her Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance (CONA) signed by Edgardo Chatto and Arthur Yap.
Molina questioned the use of a surname DELOS REYES even as her first husband Zosimo G. Ordoñez “is still alive whose marriage with her has not been declared null and void” by a court of law.
Molina claimed that Conchita T. Delos Reyes is the same Conchita T. Ordoñez known before as Conchita A. Toribio and is allegedly an “attempt to portray two different persons or personalities either to hide one from the other for some motives she only knows”.
Molina, who is the Liberal Party candidate for mayor in Carmen told the Chronicle that his petition was decided in his favor by the COMELEC First Division but is now awaiting decision on a motion for reconsideration in the COMELEC en banc.
 
Per case documents and court records, it turned out that the Carmen mayor was named as respondent Conchita Ordoñez, the surname of her first husband, and not Delos Reyes which is the surname of her present partner.
Comebacking Carmen ex-mayor Boy Molina claimed in his first election clash with Delos Reyes that the latter's marriage with Ordoñez was not null and void and her being now with another husband is therefore bigamous.
But Delos Reyes had then answered that she considered her first marriage a premature one and he had a lawyer who could handle it.
Molina believed that Delos Reyes is hiding in the family name of her second husband to evade arrest resulting from her many court cases.
The court commanded the arrest of Delos Reyes, or Ordoñez as charged, “c/o Fidel Thaddeus Borja,” said to be her lawyer, at a given address of “20th Floor, Security Bank Center, 6776 Ayala Ave. , Makati City.”
In one case for estafa, a Caviteña complainant named Cristina Abad accused Delos Reyes---or Ordoñez as identified in the charge sheet---of not delivering a Westinghouse refrigerator that she ordered from the respondent, who was then the manager of Zapote Marketing based in Bacoor, Cavite.
A resident of F&E De Castro Subdivision, Ligas in Bacoor, Abad had already paid P8,700 for the item but Delos Reyes, “once in possession” of the money, “misappropriated, misapplied and converted the same for her personal own use and benefit.”
Delos Reyes did not deliver the refrigerator despite the buyer's demand, but not until she had come to learn that Abad had ultimately sued her.
Another Caviteña, Virginia Reyes of St. Joseph Village in Panapaan, Bacoor and a certain Letecia Caluya of Peasant Village , Bayanan,  Muntinlupa in Metro Manila charged Delos Reyes with issuing checks of different amounts but which bounced .
According to them, the respondent issued the checks even if she knew fully well that shehad no sufficient fund or credit with the drawee banks, the Bank of Philippine Island and United Coconut Planters Bank to cover the amounts. The checks were dishonored on ground of “account closed.”
Delos Reyes did not make good her checks despite repeated demands, thereby causing Reyes and Caluya to also hale her to court.
There were other cases filed by the two against the same respondent but who had bailed her out in the past per court records.
ARRAIGNMENT
The  court order approving the bail was done last Tuesday with Judge Gingoyon at the same time set the arraignment of the accused at her sala on February 13 next year at 1:30 in the afternoon.
In an undertaking, which is a separate court document also signed last Tuesday, the name of the accused appeared as Conchita Delos Reyes and not Ordoñez.
The Carmen mayor “crashed out” by pen her present surname as computer-printed on the court document and wrote “Ordoñez” over it.
Her given address in the court order approving her bail bond and the undertaking declaring her agreement to the court conditions is Agustina Village , Barangay Zone 1-A, Dasmariñas City , Cavite and not Carmen, Bohol .
Early this year, Boholano retired police Gen. Alberto Olario, who charged Delos Reyes in the Ombudsman, exposed the Carmen mayor to have faced swindling, estafa and other offenses in other areas in the country, including Mindanao .(Chito Visarra and Ven Arigo)

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