Marco Morales posts bail

MARCO Morales file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The independent film actor arrested by the Makati police last week for leaving hotels with unpaid bills and stolen items has been released from detention after posting bail, the police said Tuesday.

Marco Morales got out of the detention center of the Makati police station at 4 p.m. on Friday after posting an P8,000 cash bond at the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 63 where the cases against him for estafa (fraud), concealment of true name, alarm and scandal have been lodged.

Senior Superintendent Manuel Lukban, Makati police chief, said the police  received a release order from Judge Wilfredo Oca of the Makati RTC on Friday and released the actor from their custody immediately.

“We had no choice but to allow the suspect’s release,” Lukban said on the phone.

The police also learned later on that the real name of Morales is Marco Z. Morales and not Marco Gonzales Saca as indicated in a supposedly US-issued driver’s license that bears his photograph.

The confusion about his name arose from various reports of motel debts and alleged thefts in which the actor had used several names when checking in at a hotel or motel. In one of those occasions in a Pasay motel, he left his US driver’s license with two women companions, promising them that he would come back to pay his bill.

Lukban said the driver’s license could be fabricated.

Morales was arrested on Wednesday last week by Makati police detectives who had been tipped off by security personnel at St. Giles Hotel in Makati that the suspect was about to leave their premises without settling his bills. The police had been searching for him for about a week since  the management of Victoria Court on Cuneta Avenue in Pasay City  complained that he left the motel on June 11 without paying his bill, which totaled more than P10,000.

He also reportedly stole a TV set and hit with his Volvo an employee who tried to stop him from escaping. As a result, charges of estafa, assault and theft were subsequently filed against him at the Pasay prosecutor’s office.

In an earlier interview at the Makati police station, Morales owned up to most of the accusations except the theft charges. He said he would pay all the debts in hotels and motels which he incurred, appealing to the complainants to settle the cases.

Morales, who played roles in several independent films from 2008 to 2010, told reporters last week that he was suffering from depression because he had been away too long from his parents, who live in Australia.