15 workers face estafa charges

CEBU, Philippines - Fifteen employees of ICS Global Visa Incorporated are facing charges before the court for allegedly conniving to recruit workers abroad without a license.

Prosecutor 1 Gandhi Truya of the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office held the 15 employees for trial after finding probable cause for illegal recruitment and estafa.

“...despite lack of authority to recruit employees,” Truya said that the employees of the company recruited Jerissa Marie Adalia for employment in Canada while requiring her to pay P120,000. After collecting the money, the employees failed to deploy Adalia abroad and failed to reimburse the amount she paid despite her demand.

Charged in court were Irena Victoria Clifford, Bryan Lee Palmer, Wilfredo Miranda, Idelina Ballesteros, Neal Ballesteros, Zyra Belle Jann Pardo, Hannah Villarisa, Divina Calinawan, Joanne Adlawan, Dianne Evangelista, Jessa Bacolod, Jhune Paolo Flores, Tesa Mae Satorre, Franklin Gualiza, and Sharlene Pitogo.

The incident happened sometime in November 2011.

Adalia, one of the complainants, alleged that on November 2011, the employees of the said company connived with a certain April and Aimee and pretended to engage in the recruitment and placement of workers for overseas jobs. April and Aimee will be separately prosecuted as soon as procedural requirements are complied.

Adalia was reportedly told that she would be hired as a health care assistant for a home for the aged in Canada. She was required to pay P120,000 as processing and placement fees, which she complied.

However, it was later found out that the company had no license or permit from the Philippine Overseas and Employment Authority (POEA) to recruit or deploy workers abroad.

Aside from Adalia, complaints were also filed by Joecel Cortuna, Marites Sarcilla, Maria Alina Ramales, and Janet Habagat against the accused for illegal recruitment and estafa. The four complainants have withdrawn their case though after filing a motion to withdraw complaints and executed an affidavit of desistance.

Truya, however, recommended the filing of the case by Adalia.

“From the tenor of the communications Global had with the complainants including Adalia, considering the exorbitant fees required of them and given the fact that these allegations were made independently by different individuals making their own transaction with Global not to mention that these communications were documented, the undersigned finds that Global was not engaged in an ordinary consultancy contract with these prospective migrant workers but were giving them assurance or promise of an employment abroad,” the resolution reads.

Truya recommended P60,000 bail for the temporary liberty of the accused for estafa but he recommended no bail for illegal recruitment. — Mylen P. Manto/ATO (FREEMAN)