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St., Cubao, QC, he was anxious to leave. It was his father who made
complete payment of P27,000.00 at Soliven's residence in Cubao. (see
photocopy of cash voucher dated March 28 showing full payment of
P27,000.00 by Jaylord Balauro marked Exh. E, signed by Mrs. Soliven).
Finally, he was told that he could work as engineer in Malaysia. He left on a
tourist visa. His passport was stamped in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia good for 7
days. There were three of them who arrived on April 1, 1994. Their
contact, Maribel Banigued was supposed to fetch them at the airport but she
did not. He called her up and she instructed them to take a bus to
Traveller's Inn where he met Banigued. She told them that an employer
would fetch them, but no one came. They stayed for 21 days in Kuala
Lumpur and one day in Singapore. When he ran out of funds, he had to sell
some pieces of jewelry and he wrote Aviguetero telling her about his
predicament. His father told him to come home and he did come back on
April 23, 1994. His father asked for reimbursement from Soliven and
Aviguetero and he was given P18,300.00 on April 30, 1994. His affidavitcomplaint is marked Exh. `F.'
"Shirley Velasco was introduced by her aunt Zenaida Santiago to Mrs.
Soliven on February 10, 1994 at Soliven's residence at E. Rodriguez St., QC.
Santiago was earlier recruited by Soliven as a factory worker in Malaysia.
After the introduction, she submitted a bio-data form to Ms. Soliven who
told her to come back for her passport for which she paid P1,600.00. After a
week Soliven told her she was ready to leave and work as a factory worker.
On February 18, 1994 she was asked to pay P27,000.00 as full payment of
placement/processing fee and that was when she met Mrs. Pascua at
Soliven's residence. She gave the amount to Pascua upon instruction of
Soliven. Pascua was supposed to fly with her and other recruits. But at the
departure area, when she presented her passport with an entry `service
staff,' immigration people asked for some documents which she could not
produce, hence was not allowed to leave. She saw Soliven and Aviguetero at
the canteen. Soliven just took her baggage and told her to go home."[9]
The defense presented the accused-appellant whose testimony is summarized by the
trial court as follows:
"In her defense, Aurora Soliven testified that she was an agent for Cocolife
since 1994 and the nature of her work brought her to different places to
solicit insurance. She denies having recruited the private complainants in
these cases. She explained that it was Remedios Pascua who facilitated the
employment of her son Pedro Che Soliven and son-in-law Allan Deticio in
Malaysia (see receipt dated March 25, 1994 marked Exh. `4'). Another son
Peter was also recruited by Maribel Banigued, Pascua's colleague to whom
she paid P20,000.00 (see cash voucher dated December 16, 1993 marked
Exh. `5'). She clarified that the Sotero spouses introduced themselves to
her as relatives of Aviguetero, her close friend and comadre. They were
asking for help to work abroad. Relating her children's experience who left
https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/52764
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