The suspect, identified as Maria Cristina Germar, was caught in the act of accepting money last Jan.15 in meeting with three victims who earlier sought the help of authorities after paying the syndicate a total of P280,000 in several occasions from November to December last year.
The NBI agents said Germar has three other cohorts, identified as Janet Pintucan, Celine Go and Jessie Rull, who all remain at large.
Officer-on-case Special Investigator III Valiant Raganit, of the NBI Special Action Unit, said the case stemmed from a complaint from Leticia Jeremias, Randy Barcial and Reynaldo Francisco filed with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
The victims said Germar and her accomplices posed as licensed recruiters and received P230,000 from them to arrange their employment as caregivers in Milan, Italy with a monthly salary of 1,600 euros.
It was learned the suspects initially collected P30,000 each from Jeremias and Barcial, and P20,000 from Francisco for visa processing fees in November. In December, two of the complainants even paid P100,000 each as payment for their plane tickets.
The three victims then sought loan assistance from GDFI for their placement fees, but their applications were denied due to incomplete documents. They already paid half of the required fees but still did not have pertinent documents like employment contracts, plane tickets and pre-departure and orientation seminar certificates.
Sensing fraud, the complainants went to the POEA to verify if Germar was licensed to operate. They learned that Germar and her three cohorts had no licenses to recruit and deploy workers for overseas employment nor were they employees of any recruitment agency.
Still the complainants kept contact with the suspects with the intent to have them arrested. An entrapment operation was then arranged in a restaurant in Ermita, which led to the arrest of Germar.
The NBI has recommended to the Manila Prosecutor’s Office the filing of syndicated estafa and large-scale illegal recruitment charges against Germar and her accomplices.
Raganit added they would check if the suspects have other victims.