Dennis Jose Borbon
Dennis Jose Borbon is an alleged fraudster, a congressional staff, and an alleged blogger who reportedly scammed senators JV Ejercito, Bong Go, and Tito Sotto. As a result, he got arrested on August 1, 2019. Borbon started scamming in 2016, attempting to scam JV Ejercito. Three years later, he attempted to scam Bong Go. He acted as Representative Arnulfo Fuentebella, going into a back-and-forth with Go. Go eventually found out he was not Fuentebella. That same year, he was arrested by the Philippine National Police. During his arrest, he stated that he was a popular blogger and that he was paid by Senators Bam Aquino and Antonio Trillanes and Representative Gary Alejano to smear Duterte in his blogs. He was charged with estafa. In 2021, two years after the arrest, he was the mastermind of a scam targeting Tito Sotto. He was, again, charged with estafa.
Early scams
Bong Go scam
On August 1, 2019, Senator Bong Go announced in Camp Crame, along with Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde, Representative Arnulfo Fuentebella, and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commissioner Greco Belgica that two men attempted to extort money from Go acting as Rep. Fuentebella. Go announced that the two men were Borbon and his accomplice, Edgar Bularan, who extorted other politicians using the messaging app Viber.According to Go, when the men messaged him, he got suspicious and went on to check if he was the "real Fuentebella." Go messaged Fuentebella, with the latter stating that the message was fake. He further checked with his team, who further confirmed Fuentebella's response. Go sent ₱1 to Borbon. He then messaged the perpetrators to "withdraw his money and use it to buy his coffin." Go then found out that they were tapped by the opposition to smear him in the 2019 Philippine general election. In conclusion, Go told the public to not fall for these types of scams.
Other scams
In 2016, JV Ejercito stated that Borbon scammed him in a tweet he uploaded three years later, on August 1, 2019, when he got arrested. Before his arrest, he scammed Cavite Vice Governor Jolo Revilla out of ₱15,000. He posed as Congressman Arnulfo Fuentebella, asking Revilla for money, stating that he lost his wallet in a trip to Coron, Palawan. He asked Revilla for ₱25,000. Upon finding out Fuentebella did not ask him for money, he requested assistance from the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group. During Borbon's arrest, members from the House of Representatives and the Senate stated that they were also scammed by Borbon.Smearing
In his arrest, he said that he was financed by multiple lawmakers, including Bam Aquino, Antonio Trillanes, and Gary Alejano to smear Rodrigo Duterte and his candidates during the 2019 Philippine general election. Borbon stated that he was a "popular blogger" and had 300,000 followers. He identified himself as an anti-Duterte blogger, causing the anti-Duterte candidates in the 2019 election to allegedly pay him ₱20,000 to ₱40,000 to smear the image of Duterte. Aquino and Alejano denied Borbon's accusations, asking his claims to not be dignified. His admission to smearing caused Senator Sotto to call for a law that opposes fake news. "Maraming tao ang nabibiktima ng maling balita o impormasyon,", said Sotto in a text message.Arrest
The day before the arrest, a man was targeted in an entrapment operation by the PNP who was reportedly related to Borbon. Borbon was arrested on August 1 by the PNP. He was arrested along with another scammer. They were arrested when they were trying to withdraw the remaining money from his scam to Revilla in an ATM. In the arrest, he was revealed to know the person behind the "Ang Totoong Narcolist" videos, who was declared guilty of perjury two years later.He was a congressional staff of the Una ang Edukasyon party-list in the 2019 Philippine general election. They were charged for violating Republic Act 10175, specifically for estafa. Many things were seized by Borbon and his co-conspirators, including an Oppo cellphone, a Starmobile cellphone, three Globe Telecom prepaid sim cards, a Metrobank debit card, four GCash cards, and a Commission on Elections identification card among others. During a press conference after his arrest, Edgar Bularan, his accomplice, was found to harvest lawmakers' phone numbers from the dark web and use them to call the lawmakers.