Jeweler hopes to recover P1.7M from 'swindler'

After having been tricked into “investing" almost P1.7 million by sweet-talking Flordeliza Kong Pace Tayzon 10 years ago, it has become difficult for jeweler Dely Tan to trust any other person again. Mrs Tan, a Chinese-Filipino businesswoman from San Juan, Metro Manila is the latest addition to the growing list of victims who have come forward to point to 44-year-old Janice del Rosario as the woman who disappeared years ago with their hard-earned money. Del Rosario is the Filipino woman who was deported January 21 from Toronto, Canada where she bilked her friends with more than C$2 million in 2006. Flordeliza Kong Pace Tayzon was one of the many aliases del Rosario used in convincing people she befriended to entrust their life savings to her, promising them five to 10 percent interest in 10 to 30 days. She also used the aliases Flordeliza Tayzon, Flor Kong Pace, Janet C. del Rosario, Janeth del Rosario, and Janice Florence del Rosario between 1986 and 2003 and victimized unsuspecting people she befriended. Mrs Tan described del Rosario as “a notorious swindler" whose modus operandi was to pose as a big-time buyer of jewelry. She hopes to recover her money but prays that del Rosario will be locked up in jail for long so she can no longer victimize anyone else anymore. Another jeweler, Teresa Ong, lost more than P2 million to del Rosario,using the alias Flor Kong Pace, in five transactions in 1995. A partial list of her victims who have come to court showed that in 1993, Virginia Ponce of Tondo, Manila failed to recover P33,900 of her money from Tayzon. Mernalyn Srisuk, a Thai piano teacher of Tayzon’s elder sons to her first husband, was also duped with more than P800,000 in 1991. Antonio Cabatit, lawyer of her friend, lost P22,400 in 1994 while Carmelita Langeg from Pasig lost P40,800 to Tayzon in 1990. One Esperanza Torres of Las Pinas also failed to recover her P38,716 “investments" in 1988. Tayzon also disappeared with the P33,900 investments of Cindy Marie Dybuncio of Pasig in 1986. Teresa Balberan of Makati lost P11,000 to Tayzon in 1988. Mrs Tan secured a conviction for eight counts of estafa against del Rosario as Flordeliza Kong Pace Tayzon in July 1997 from Branch 58 of the San Juan regional trial court. Judge Guillermo G. Purganan meted her six months jail term for each count plus indemnity of a total of P1.67 million representing the amount on eight checks she issued that bounced. Mrs Tan has become restless after finding out that Tayzon is back, with a different name and face that she suspected to have undergone several cosmetic surgeries. She immediately went to the Quezon City police district’s Station 6 where del Rosario is locked up with her husband, Kaye Gravador del Rosario, 33, formerly a jail guard at San Juan municipal jail where she met Janice while serving a term for fraud. Mrs Tan said she was able to have Flordeliza Tayzon jailed in 1996. Tayzon managed to get out of jail through her powerful connections in the police, military and the judiciary. Mrs Tan showed GMANews.TV a hold departure order from Judge Justo Sultan of the San Juan court for Tayzon, dated June 5, 1996. She said Tayzon could have managed to get out of the country in 2003 by assuming another name, possibly Janice del Rosario. After finding out that the del Rosarios are back in town, Mrs Tan is appealing to the courts handling the estafa cases against them to promptly issue them summons for the reading of the verdict of conviction and service of sentence at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa. Tayzon also has a 1998 bench warrant for conviction in another eight counts of estafa involving P338,165 from Branch 98 of the Quezon City regional trial court. Mrs Tan said she was worried that del Rosario could get out of detention before the Quezon City and San Juan courts that convicted Tayzon in July 1997 and April 1998 could issue the summons for her to serve her prison terms. She even raised suspicion that the police in the precinct where she is locked up would release her once she convinces the station commander, Superintendent Constante Agpaoa, that she would pay him up. Agpaoa and his wife, Francisca, also a police officer, were also lured into her “loan re-discounting" business through a friend in 2001. For two years, she paid 10 percent returns monthly until she disappeared in March 2003. Mrs Tan raised the suspicion on Agpaoa after finding out from the Quezon City RTC on January 23 that he had not reported the deportation of the del Rosario couple from Canada. She also said Agpaoa used a court warrant on del Rosario that had a P40,000 bail, and not the bench warrants that did not have bail. - GMANews.TV