placement fees and requiring documents for employment, are done in another place. Appellant should not forget that the latter acts would not have taken place if it is not for the singular act of enlisting workers and assuring them jobs in foreign shores. Appellant bewails the testimony of the complainants. The "inconsistencies" he refers to pertain merely to the description of the complainants' relationship with one another. Alice Kimay has said that the other persons recruited by appellant are her nephews and nieces. Jerry Akia has stated, however, that while he would call Alice auntie, she really is not his aunt but a neighbor for a long time.xvii[17] On the other hand, Aaron John Acena has testified that Alices husband is a distant relative of his mother and quite close to Alice.xviii[18] It is not a strange custom, and the Court can take judicial notice, that one would call or refer to another as a brother, an uncle or an aunt, a nephew or niece, either as a sign of respect or of close association. Furthermore, the matter is too insignificant to affect the credibility of the witnesses. What is really important is that the witnesses have been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt the case for illegal recruitment and to positively identify the accused as being the offender of the law.xix[19] Article 13(b) of the Labor Code defines recruitment and placement as any act of canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring or procuring workers, and includes referrals, contract services, promising or advertising for employment, locally or abroad, whether for profit or not: Provided, That any person or entity which, in any manner, offers or promises for a fee employment to two or more persons shall be deemed engaged in recruitment and placement. The essential elements then of the crime of illegal recruitment in large scale are that: (1) the accused engages in acts of recruitment and placement of workers defined under Article 13(b) or in any prohibited activities under Article 34 of the Labor Code; (2) the accused has not complied with the guidelines issued by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, particularly with respect to the securing of a license or an authority to recruit and deploy workers, either locally or overseas, and (3) the accused commits the unlawful acts against three or more persons, individually or as a group.xx[20] The series of acts done by appellant of promising complainants employment abroad, instructing them to comply with the documentary requirements therefor, requiring them to undergo tests such as the trade test undergone by Jerry Akia, using airline procedures for checking reservations and demanding the payment of fees for his services, have created an impression upon complainants that he is capable of providing them with work abroad.xxi[21] It is not disputed that appellant has had no license or authority to engage in job recruitment. A license is that which is issued by the Department of Labor and Employment ("DOLE") authorizing a person or entity to operate a private employment agency, while an authority is that issued by the DOLE entitling a person or association to so engage in recruitment and placement activities as a private recruitment agency.xxii[22] It is the lack of the necessary license or authority that renders the recruitment activity unlawful or criminal.xxiii[23] Appellant is neither licensed nor authorized to recruit workers in Baguio City or any part of the Region for overseas work per the uncontroverted certification of the POEA to that effect. More than three complainants have come out to denounce appellants illegal venture.