FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 121179. July 2, 1998]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ANTONINE B. SALEY a.k.a. ANNIE
B. SALEY, accused-appellant.
DECISION
VITUG, J.:
The case before the Court focuses on the practice of some "illegal recruiters" who would even go
to the extent of issuing forged tourist visas to aspiring overseas contract workers. These
unsuspecting job applicants are made to pay exorbitant "placement" fees for nothing really since,
almost invariably, they find themselves unable to leave for their purported country of
employment or, if they are able to, soon find themselves unceremoniously repatriated. This Court
once described their plight in a local proverb as being naghangad ng kagitna, isang salop ang
nawala.i[1]
In this appeal from the 3rd March 1995 decision of the Regional Trial Court of La Trinidad,
Benguet, Branch 10,ii[2] appellant Antonine B. Saley, a.k.a. Annie B. Saley, seeks a reversal of
the verdict finding her guilty beyond reasonable doubt of eleven counts of estafa punishable
under the Revised Penal Code and six counts of illegal recruitment, one committed in large scale,
proscribed by the Labor Code.
Appellant was indicted in eleven separate informations for estafa under Article 315, paragraph
2(1), of the Revised Penal Code. The cases (naming the complainants and stating the amounts
therein involved) include: (1) Criminal Case No. 92-CR-1397iii[3] (Francisco T. Labadchan
P45,000.00); (2) Criminal Case No. 92-CR-1414 (Victoria Asil P33,000.00); (3) Criminal Case
No. 92-CR-1415 (Cherry Pi-ay P18,000.00); (4) Criminal Case No. 92-CR-1426 (Corazon del
Rosario P40,000.00); (5) Criminal Case No. 92-CR-1428 (Arthur Juan P24,200.00); (6) Criminal
Case No. 93-CR-1644 (Alfredo C. Arcega P25,000.00); (7) Criminal Case No. 93-CR-1646
(Brando B. Salbino P25,000.00); (8) Criminal Case No. 93-CR-1647 (Mariano Damolog
P25,000.00); (9) Criminal Case No. 93-CR-1649 (Lorenzo Belino P25,000.00); (10) Criminal
Case No. 93-CR-1651 (Peter Arcega P25,000.00) and (11) Criminal Case No. 93-CR-1652
(Adeline Tiangge P18,500.00).
Except for the name of the offended party, the amount involved and the date of the commission
of the crime, the following information in Criminal Case No. 93-CR-1652 typified the other
informations for the crime of estafa:
That in or about the month of December, 1991, and sometime prior to or subsequent
thereto, at Buyagan, Municipality of La Trinidad, Province of Benguet, Philippines, and
within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused, with intent to
defraud ADELINE TIANGGE y MARCOS and by means of deceit through false
representations and pretenses made by her prior to or simultaneous with the commission