Indie actor Marco Morales tagged as notorious ‘motel skipper’

MARCO Morales file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Pasay police are certain that the man whom they call as “motel skipper” after leaving motels with unpaid bills and stealing a TV set, was the independent film actor with screen name Marco Morales.

“We are very sure they are one and the same,” Senior Superintendent Rodolfa Llorca, the city police chief, said over the phone on Sunday.

Marco Gonzaga Saga as police earlier identified based on the US driver’s license he gave to two women he took for companions when he checked in at a motel, is facing charges of estafa, theft, and assault at the Pasay city prosecutor’s office.

The complaints were filed after the incident on June 10, at around 4 p.m. when he left a motel chain in Pasay City, without paying his bills amounting to P10,210 which covered food and lodging for a 36-hour stay.

The management of the motel complained that he also stole a 32-inch LED television set and hit an employee when he broke through the steel barrier set up at the motel’s driveway on board a Volvo car.

It was the second time he left a motel without paying, Llorca said. The first was when he left two women to foot the bills for him.

The police confirmed that the man whom they earlier suspected as a Filipino-American, based on the driver’s license, was an actor playing roles in indie films when some netizens recognized the actor in the news. Apparently, he was using Marco Morales as a screen name, Llorca said.

Llorca said they have also alerted other hotels and motels about the man. “We got feedback from some hotel security officials that he went to at least two posh hotels in Makati to check in but he left when the hotel attendants required a deposit.”

According to previous media reports, Morales gained notoriety for doing full frontal nudity in indie movies like “Walang Kawala” in 2008 and “Heavenly Touch” in 2009.

“We don’t know why he did those things. He has become notorious among hotels and motels,” Llorca said.