Boyfriend runs off with OFW’s savings

BAGUIO CITY -- A middle-aged overseas Filipina worker who opened a joint dollar account with her boyfriend in a bank here two years ago discovered last week the account was closed by the latter without her knowledge.

Police said the boyfriend ran off with all their savings several months ago and is nowhere to be found.

Records of the Baguio City Police Office identified the victim as Nilda Santa Mina Sermonia, 45, single, an OFW who worked in Taiwan, who hails from Cordova Norte, Tigpauan, Iloilo.

Sermonia named her boyfriend as Juanito Mones Paredes, of legal age, an OFW who worked in Alcobar, Saudi Arabia, and whose last known address here was at Ambuklao road, Purok 1, Gibraltar.

The estafa victim said she and Paredes opened a joint account in the Philippine National Bank branch along Session Road on Jan. 26, 2007 and deposited US $ 8,000 or the equivalent of P350,000 under account number 6310-0001984-000.

But when she called the bank last week, after her return to the Philippines, she found out her boyfriend closed the account on June 2 and ran off with the whole amount deposited, together with the interest accrued for over a year.