Sunday, Feb 23, 2014
(Manila, Feb. 23, 2014) A military officer detailed with the palace security was caught red handed using a cloned ATM card.
Lt. Senior Grade Raphael Macalay Marcial face being charged with committing violations of the country’s law governing electronic commerce after he was arrested by police in Makati City on Friday evening using a device cloning automated teller machine (ATM) cards.
Aside from being charged with violations of the e-commerce law, Marcial could likely face administrative charges. He is a member of the Presidential Security Group, a hand-picked group of soldiers guarding the President and other top VIPs.
“There will be no special treatment,” Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr. said.
Reports quoted Makati City police as saying that Marcial was arrested by while withdrawing cash from an ATM at a bank branch in the city’s Pasong Tamo Extension.
Prior to Marcial’s arrest, police said there had been a number of complaints from ATM clients of their deposits vanishing mysteriously from their accounts.
Retired Col. Butch Abalon, head of security of East West Bank said in reports that Marcial had been apprehended by police after he was monitored in the bank branch’s closed circuit TV monitors as he was about to withdraw money from an ATM machine.
Upon arrest, Marcial yielded 11 other ATM cards in his possession, all cloned and were from different banks.
Coloma said Marcial will have to face the consequences of his actions.
“There are guidelines and processes that the Armed Forces of the Philippines follow with regards to filing appropriate disciplinary actions,” he said in an interview aired over government-run dzRB radio on Sunday.
Marcial, according to reports, was a government scholar being a member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 2008.
Coloma said PSG members, like all government employees, are expected to be law-abiding citizens at all times.
“They must face the consequences of their actions in accordance with the law,” he said.
Authorities are also investigating how Marcial was able to get hold of a cloned ATM and if there are other similar such cases of fraud.
Just last February 11, police in Pampanga province in Central Luzon arrested a man who claimed to be foreigner while installing a gadget that copy ATMs in Angeles City.
Roberto De Cecco, 62, claimed to be an Italian when police arrested him while using an ATM of the Security Bank.
According to police officers who arrested him, De Cecco was not able to show his passport. He is believed to be a member of an international syndicate engaged in ATM card fraud.
By Gilbert ?P. Felongco?Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
