Businesswoman files estafa case vs Cam

Confessed jueteng bagwoman Sandra Cam was charged yesterday before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office in two separate cases with 13 violations of the Bouncing Check Law for allegedly issuing without sufficient funds 13 checks amounting to P260,000 to her landlady.

In separate complaints filed before Assistant Prosecutor Meynard Bautista Jr., Susan Sandejas Gomez accused Cam of issuing to her four checks amounting to P80,000 and nine other checks totaling P180,000, which were dishonored by the bank they were drawn against for lack of funds or because Cam’s account had been closed.

"Despite notice of dishonor and demands for payment of the amount covered by the said checks, respondent failed to and refused to settle the obligations," she said.

The P80,000 was advance payment for a two-story apartment on No. 1074 Estrada st. in Malate, Manila, while the P180,000 was for another unit to house the offices of Cam’s World Link Management and Training Services, she added.

Gomez, SS Grace Inc. general manager, said she had filed the new case for violation of Batas Pambansa 22, or the Bouncing Check Law, after the swindle case she had filed against Cam last year was dismissed by the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

"I am filing a new case after I saw Cam on television," she said. "I confronted her during the Senate hearing but she ignored me."

Gomez said she wants to recover the P269,000 which her company had lost because of Cam’s refusal to settle her obligations.

She was not able to file the case immediately as Cam was nowhere to be found, she added.

Edgardo Layno, Gomez’s counsel, said in a statement the two cases are on top of at least eight libel cases against Cam filed by different individuals.

The cases were filed in various courts by presidential son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, his uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, Pampanga provincial board member Lilia Pineda and six Comelec regional directors, he added.

Layno said that on Oct. 3, 2003, World Link vacated the leased premises but the company left outstanding liabilities for rent owed on two apartment units and for unpaid utility bills.

Gomez deposited and encashed Cam’s checks, but they were dishonored by the issuing bank, Banco Filipino, because the accounts either had insufficient funds or had been closed, he added.

Layno said during Gomez and Cam’s confrontation at the Senate last month, Gomez had hoped she could persuade Cam to settle her obligations.

"Instead of committing to pay her obligations, Cam blurted disdainful utterances about my apartment," Layno quoted Gomez as saying.

"If my apartment is dilapidated and rundown as Cam claimed during the hearing, why would she have rented out another unit to expand her caregiver school?"

Gomez went to the Senate because Cam had been evading her, Layno said, and it was only at the Senate that she could confront her on the matter.