Estafa rap dismissed; Will ‘J’ be good now?

No more court case hounds “J”, the teenager whose good looks and shoplifting escapade in Cebu made her an instant Internet sensation last year.

The estafa charge filed over her non-payment of bills in a beach resort in Asturias town was dismissed yesterday by the Regional Trial Court Branch 59 in Toledo City.

Judge Hermes Montero dismissed the case after a lawyer settled the P15,000 bill and the owner of Cabo San Miguel Beach Resort filed an affidavit of desistance to withdraw her complaint.

“J” wasn’t in the court house when her case was called at 9 a.m.

She waited in a parked van outside the Palace of Justice, escorted by social workers.

The resort owner Myrna Beltran approached her and for five minutes, they had a private conversation in the Ford Ranger van with tinted windows.

“I gave her a rosary from the Holy Land,” Beltran told reporters later.

“She just told me nga magbinuotan na kuno siya. And I just gave her some advice. (She just told me she would straighten up and be good from now on.)”.

The exchange took place on Ash Wednesday, a day that opens the penitential season of Lent for Catholics.

Asked if the mestiza from Southern Leyte apologized to her, Beltran said “sort of… but necessarily an ‘I am sorry.”

“J” remains in custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which was in a quandary over who to turn her over to after the girl’s parents in Southern Leyte refused to get involved.

The teenager spent Christmas and the Sinulog in an undisclosed government center for minors in Cebu.

The real identity of the mestiza student no longer appears in media reports after records showed she was still a minor at 16 years old, and not an adult as she had first claimed when a video of a CCTV camera was uploaded last year year, showing her leaving a

Mandaue city boutique dressed in clothes and shoes she didn’t pay for in August 2014. A police blotter report never ripened into a charge after the store owner found out she was a minor.

Yesterday was the first time the Asturias resort owner and “J” spoke to each other following the girl’s arrest last December.

Resort workers said this was not her first stay with them, and that “J” had checked in months before with a man from a nearby municipality, whom they thought would be joining her again.

Lawyer Rene Abcede Jr. told reporters he used his own money to settle the unpaid P15,000 bill for the girl’s three-day stay in Cabo San Miguel Beach Resort.

Abcede said he also paid the P40,000 cash bail bond for her temporary liberty after the estafa case was elevated to court in December 2014.

“We knew each other even before this case was filed. We got acquainted with each other back in Sogod (town), southern Leyte. We’ve been friends since then,” the lawyer said.

He said the girl immediately contacted him after her arrest on Dec. 8, 2014 when resort staff complained to the police.
“She personally hired me. I’m the counsel of her choice so to speak,” said Abcede, who entered his formal appearance in court last December.

He said the girl has no definite plans yet.

Capitol officials earlier expressed reservations about releasing the girl to the lawyer since she was a minor and could only be turned over to her parents, legal guardian or a government agency.

Rose Jao, assistant head of the Cebu Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), said the girl would remain in their custody for the time being.

“She is a minor so we have to release her to family members or releatives,” Jao told CDN last night. “But no relative wants to accept her.””

In a separate interview, Jao said they wil wait for an official order from the court and the DSWD.

“Remember, she is a minor and her parents never claimed her; not at all,” Jao said.

“She will be released but as to the time, we do not know yet.”

A date was set in late January for the mayor of Sogod in Southern Leyte and social workers to visit the Capitol to discuss a turnover so J could go home, but logistic and legal complications still need ironing out, said Jao.

The girl will stay in a shelter for female children in conflict with the law in Cebu.

J has been staying in at least three shelters over a period of three months.

“Her attitude is okay so far. I think she already realized certain things,” Jao said, describing the minor as cooperative.

She said the teenger hasn’t tried any suicide attempts while under the custody of the DSWD.

“We’re not being hesistant to release her. But we just want to be sure because she’s a minor,” Jao said.

Her real age was a matter of speculation after J claimed she was over 20 when visiting establishments, then when she was in trouble would tell police that she’s only 16 years old.

Based on records of the National Statistic’s Office and school records, Bascug is 16, Jao said.

In yesterday’s hearing, retired Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr. represented Cabo San Miguel Beach Resort and asked the court to dismiss the estafa charge since the bills had been settled.

Dumdum is the brother of the resort owner.

He told CDN he was able to briefly talk with the girl inside the DSWD vehicle.

“Ako lang siya giingnan nga ‘Akong tambag nimo, balik na sa Ginoo day.’ (I just told her, my advice to you is to return to the Lord),” Dumdum said.

When “J” checked in alone in the resort on Dec. 8, 2015, she occupied the most expensive room called Terraza at P5,000 per day.

The fully air-conditioned room has a dining room and living room, and can accommodate four people.

She was accused for shoplifting in a boutique in Mandaue city in August 2014 but the store owner didn’t proceed with filing a case with the prosecutor.

Four months later, a salon owner in Cebu City complained to the police that “J” had her hair and nails done, and availed of other grooming services worth P2,000 then left without paying.

The escapades earned the teenager the monicker the “most beautiful shoplifter in Cebu” in Internet reports that went viral. /with Correspondent Victor Anthony Silva

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