50 fall victim to ‘sangla-tira’ in Tondo, Manila

A group of 50 people allegedly lost more than 10 million pesos after engaging in “sangla-tira” in Barangay 123, Tondo, Manila.

Sangla-tira is a scheme where someone rents out a room or his entire house for a certain period of time.

Almost all the victims said they found out about the vacancy in Richard Abela’s house through their Facebook group called “Sangla Tira Tondo.”

Deo Baleña’s daughter paid P200,000 last September 20 to rent two rooms for three years, but they were not able to move in.  Abela reportedly asked them to wait another month until the current tenant who was looking for another house could move out. The same alibi was given in October until Abela told them that he would just return the money. He issued Baleña a check worth P250,000 only for the victims to later find out that it was a bounced check.

Abela then allegedly went into hiding. Baleña posted on Facebook to warn others and discovered that other people had also paid for the exact same room.

Baleña’s group went to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to seek help. They also went to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to report the barangay officials whom they claimed were in connivance with Abela.

Since all the transactions were done inside the barangay hall, the victims believed the officials knew about the anomalous deal from the very beginning.

“Dapat sila, na-stop na nila,” said Baleña. “Sabihin na, ‘Oh, ikaw, suspek ka nagsangla ka na naman meron ka pa ritong ano, ilang complainant na nagpupunta sa iyo rito.’”

Another victim who asked not to be named said the barangay officials could not have been ignorant of the other complaints. “Alam po nila ‘yun kasi po ipinakita po namin mismo ‘yung picture ‘nung bahay,” she said. “[Tinanong ko] kumbaga wala pang record ng pagkakasangla sa ibang tao? Ang sabi niya, ah oo malinis ‘yan.”

In his barangay’s defense, chairman Mario Banal said they did not tell the victims to do the transactions in their office. It just so happened that they were looking for a safe place and trustworthy people to witness the deal so they thought of going to the barangay.

“Wala po kaming kaugnayan kung anong usapan nila sa pera pera po,” said Banal. “Kami po ay ililista lang namin, ila-log namin [ang kasunduan].”

Banal said they have also tried to locate Abela, but to no avail.

GMA News went to the house of Abela, the same house that was being rented out, but no one answered the door. The team also tried to call his cellphone number but the line was always busy.

The victims intend to charge Abela with large scale estafa. — RSJ, GMA News