A man identified himself as an MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority) personnel is now in hot waters after he was allegedly attempting to solicit passengers coming from LRT. This is an unusual way of soliciting money from innocent passengers who are just passing by along the streets of EDSA (Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue). This is the busiest road in the country with millions of passengers passing through this road each day. The incident has been involved in a significant number of incidents responsible for causing a social dilemma for innocent passengers and commuters on a daily basis.
A passenger named as Joerick Lorenzana from his Facebook account posted a photo of a man who was allegedly claiming himself as an MMDA personnel. This man was wearing a yellow shirt that has a logo on his left chest side, claiming that Joerick left a small trash along the streets. The man became irate and immediately confronted Joerick with his mother after riding an LRT along Buendia. This man in yellow shirt suspiciously approached them with a raging voice, making Joerick skeptical about his actions. Joerick resisted this man's attempt to extort him due to his allegedly suspicious style of solicitation.
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| A man pretending to be an MMDA personnel |
Joerick then realized that he is just bluffed by this person wearing yellow by aggressively confronting them. The realization comes when he found out that the ticket that this person was pertaining was actually inside his mother's bag. Joerick no longer followed the instructions of this man in yellow shirt and then began resisting his commands. When this man realized that his modus operandi was not effective, he then slowly went away from the scene and fled. While fleeing the scene, this person was still showing inappropriate gestures through his hands towards his supposed victim on that particular scene.
During the confrontation, another man helped Joerick to confront the man in a yellow shirt. This man told Joerick that the person wearing a yellow shirt is obviously a member of a "Budol Budol" gang. This is because he was also a victim before they came to the streets and was attempted to be extorted. Joerick took a photo of this person. The man in a yellow shirt indicated that he didn't mind if Joerick will make him famous over the social media. The suspect continuous to blab inappropriate words to his victims in an attempt to cause a scene and distract the attention of the audience. Joerick then posted the incident through his Facebook account out of frustration.
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A few months ago, another similar incident occurred inside the MRT station. This time, the members of a modus operandi group made another tactic. The suspect planned to create a scene by screaming while the train is currently moving. The suspects claim that they have been harassed by their chosen victims while inside the train. These suspects grab their victims out from the train. Their next step is to present their victims to the police station and create a statement to cause fear to the victim. Out of fear, their victim will start to feel helpless and will just do their orders until they will resort to extortion.
The public is warned against this type of modus operandi. Repeat offenders are very creative to cause a scene to the public as a way for them to attain their mission. This is to extort their chosen victim after resorting to a scandalous scene. When they finally got their victim's trust by giving them their money, they will go to another victim to do similar modus. This action is saddening, especially for innocent civilians who are not aware of this particular practice by the repeat offenders in order to make a living.
Using the camera of your phone is one of the most useful ways in order to record all the scenes that are regarded suspicious. The use of social media in the modern society is a very helpful way to improve the complexity of a certain individual to improve their services. The public is advised to keep their phones open whenever they will experience similar incidents. Recording the whole scene is helpful in order to create a testimony as well as a strong evidence whenever these incidents will proceed to legal battles such as court proceedings.
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