More surface versus Organico

CEBU, Philippines —  Less than a month after complainants surfaced in October, more investors have accused Organico Agri-Business Ventures Investment of allegedly failing to give their “payouts,” contrary to what the company allegedly promised when luring them to invest.

Seven investors went to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group - 7 yesterday morning to file a complaint against the company.

One of the seven who requested anonymity said she and five other members of her family invested up to P600,000 with Organico.

“Mu-file mi ug complaint kay ganahan mi mabawi among kwarta, among investment, kay dili baya lalim… naghatag mi ug investment nya gi-scam lang mi, giilad mi (We will file a complaint to get our money, our investment back… it’s not easy to invest and get scammed, fooled),” she told reporters.

She said she has had doubts when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a crackdown on investment scams but the promise of ‘payout’ reportedly convinced her to invest. She even agreed to her money “rolled over.”

“Naa pa gani tu silay mga program nga ipa-roll over daw ang money… kadto ga duha-duha nako ato… since, usahay, musalig lang pud ta ba, so mao to, nisugot mi nga ipa roll-over. And then katong pag roll-over, nibawi na pud sila (They even had a program to have the money rolled over and while I was suspicious, I decided to still trust them so we agreed to have our money rolled over),” she narrated.

While they were promised several ways to raise money, she started realizing that the same was a tactic for the company to release their payout.

“Daghan na mi mu-file ug complaint against the Organico… hopefully, matagaan mi og justice (There are many of us who will file a complaint against Organico… hopefully, we will get justice),” she said.

Police Major Ronald Allan Tolosa, deputy chief of CIDG-7, said the office is ready to assist the complainants.

“Daghan na, ubay-ubay na ani atong mga complainant. We are assisting them in the filing of the case aning investment scam (There are many complainants and we are assisting them in filing a case against this investment scam),” Tolosa said.

He said the CIDG has already served a search warrant to the Organico offices but the company has since closed down.

“Karon, nasabtan na nato nga totally nag-close naman sila, then nasabtan na sa mga investors nga totally scam jud ni sila so giawhag nato sila nga mag-file ug complaint (Now, we understand since they have already closed down… investors also understand that they have been scammed so we urge them to file a complaint),” Tolosa said.

Officers of Organico will face estafa charges in court. JMO (FREEMAN)