"The two persons who took P3 million in jewelry and cash from me should be apprehended so they do not victimize others," lawyer Luz Dato-Lacson said yesterday.

"I don't mind if I don't get my jewelry and money back as long as those swindlers are jailed," Lacson said.

The lawyer also said that, yesterday, she got a call from a woman who told her that the description of one of the men who victimized her fit that of the man whose wife had also "swindled" a lot of people in their neighborhood.

Lacson, 79, said she is okay, there is no use crying over what she lost since there is nothing she can do about it.

More than P2 million of jewelry, some of them irreplaceable heirlooms, $10,000 and P65,000 in cash, were taken from her by two men who approached her at the Burgos Public Market area Wednesday.

Senior Supt. Pedro Merced, Bacolod police director, said the culprits could be members of the Budol-budol gang.

She was first approached by a mestizo-looking man who told her he was a sea captain with a doctor-daughter married to an Australian millionaire who wanted to buy property.

The second man, a person of heavy-build, said he needed help to buy pumps for his fishing boats and to rent a box in a bank vault and deposit his P1.8 million in the black bag he was carrying.

HELPFUL

Lacson, who is known for being helpful to those in need, has often offered her services as a lawyer for free to those who cannot afford legal fees.

She said she went to the Philippine National Bank vault to get money for repairs of on her house and got out all the contents of her safety deposit box, which included her jewelry, put them in a shoe bag and returned to the vehicle at the Petron gas station at Burgos where the men were waiting.

She also put her two-carat diamond ring, dollar and peso passbooks, and other cash in the bag.

The man with the bag told her to go home to attend to her guests first and that they should instead meet again in the afternoon. He left his black bag allegedly with the P1.8 million with her, and put her valuables in it too.

DISCOVERY

Later in the afternoon she opened the bag to find that it contained only crumpled newspaper and two pieces of wood. Her valuables were all missing.

She had also left her cellular phone and that of her helper with the swindlers.

"I could not sleep last night thinking how that could have happened since I watched the man put my valuables in the black bag I brought home," she said.

Lacson said she thinks that when the men helped her out of the van and briefly held the black bag, that was when they switched it with the one she brought home.

A CLUE

Jennifer Ong of Lopez Jaena, Bacolod City, yesterday called Lacson and told her that the description of one of the men who swindled her fit that of a man who, with his wife, used to be boarders in her house.

The man who is of heavy build has hair as long as that of TV host Joey de Leon and is in his 40s or 50s, while his wife has Indian features, curly hair, a high nose with eyebags under her eyes, Ong said.

Because she did not trust the couple, Ong said she told them to leave her house and they boarded in a house next door.

Ong said the wife had sweet-talked many people in her neighborhood, including her grandmother, to lend her money but did not pay them.

The woman also spoke about having plenty of jewelry and having dollars, Ong said, which sounded like the things taken from Lacson.

Neighbors said that one time, policemen were in the vicinity and the couple appeared to be afraid and kept their heads down.

The couple disappeared from their neighborhood the day Lacson was swindled, she said.

Merced said the police will look into Ong's story and are waiting for the NBI cartographic sketches of the two suspects who swindled Lacson so that a search can be conducted for them.

He said they are also determining if three people apprehended by Precinct 8 policemen several years ago for pulling off a similar scam could be the same ones.

Of three apprehended, one was a woman, Merced said.*CPG

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