Couple arrested for recruit fraud

A couple who has a standing warrant for large scale estafa through alleged illegal recruitment was turned over yesterday to the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 after the police arrested the two in Laguna last Saturday.

Gary and Ada Serafin, allegedly the owners of AZ Travel and Visa Consultancy based in Taboc, Mandaue City, have allegedly duped at least 50 job applicants in Cebu alone with promises of travel to New Zealand for job contracts there that were not allegedly fulfilled.

Initial investigation of the CIDG showed they allegedly deceived also more applicants in the cities of Zambonga, Ormoc, and Davao, and in the province of Nueva Ecija but the CIDG is yet to collate the warrants of arrest already issued for these cases.

The fall of the couple started when their local contacts Sherina and Leonardo Lorenzo were arrested last June in Mandaue City. The Lorenzos, during their detention, reportedly squealed to the police the involvement of the Serafins in the allegedly illegal operations.

Sometime last July, Judge Ulric Cañete issued a warrant of arrest against the Serafins for large scale estafa with no bail while Judge Agustin Vestil issued another against them, also for estafa but with a recommended bail of P18,000.

But the arrest of the couple was not due to these warrants. An owner of an apartment inside a plush subdivision in Santa Rosa, Laguna went to the CIDG office in Laguna complaining that the Serafins allegedly failed to pay their rent for eight months already.

CIDG-Laguna provincial intelligence and operation officer Arden Amogod, who turned over the couple to CIDG-Central Visayas, told The Freeman that the apartment owner had asked that the Serafins be arrested for alleged estafa.

At 5pm last Saturday, Amogod's men launched an operation resulting to the arrest of the Serafins. His office subsequently got wind of a report that the couple has also two warrants for estafa via illegal recruitment in Cebu.

Amogod said they immediately coordinated with CIDG-7, requesting a copy of the warrants of arrest and picture of the couple for confirmation. Upon getting affirmations, he quickly arranged for the turnover of the Serafins to CIDG-7.

One of the alleged victims, Marge Daniot of Banilad Mandaue City, told The Freeman that she paid P130,000 to AZ Travel and, along with 29 others, was supposed to leave for New Zealand last May. The Lorenzos were the ones who dealt with her since she applied last January, said Dainot. She claimed she was made to sign a 'blind contract" and went with it anyway, despite her doubts, presuming that the agency has different procedures than the others.

A hotel and restaurant graduate, Daniot said she worked in Dubai for several years with very specific contract stipulations. In the Lorenzos case, she was allegedly told that her contract would be brought back to New Zealand first before she could go there. The other applicants were also told the same, she said. From there on, they waited while they kept on inquiring from the Lorenzos on the status of their supposed job in New Zealand but all they got were various reasons every now and then. It was not until they realized that the Lorenzos disappeared that they were forced to file a case against the couple, she said. Daliot alleged that AZ Travel was a consultancy firm that partnered with an employment agency. But it assured the applicants that it is already applying at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for a permit to operate as an employment agency, she said.

All her acknowledgment receipts bore the name of AZ Travel, however, and Daniot said she later learned from the Lorenzos that the Serafins were allegedly the mastermind in the recruitment agency. Daniot also said she found out that the couple had been arrested four times in Manila for similar accusations but got out in all those cases.

CIDG-7 chief Rex Derilo said that, with the arrest of the Serafin couple, he is expecting more alleged victims of illegal recruitment to come to his office today and file complaints against the Serafins.