Synopsis/Syllabi SECOND DIVISION [G.R. Nos. 115719-26. October 5, 1999] PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. IRENE YABUT @ IRENE CORTEZ @ FLORENCE MADRIDi[1], accused-appellant. DECISION QUISUMBING, J.: On appeal is the decision dated February 16, 1994 of the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City, Branch 159, convicting appellant Fernando Cortez y Vega of the crime of illegal recruitment in large scale, imposing upon him the penalty of life imprisonment, and ordering him to pay a fine of P100,000.00 and to indemnify private complainants in the following amounts a. Fely M. Casanova in the amount of P151,581.00; b. Arnel M. Diana in the amount of P50,000.00; c. Reynaldo P. Claudio in the amount of P58,454.00; d. German Aquino in the amount of P40,000.00; e. Manolito Latoja in the amount of P45,000.00; f. Alejandro P. Ruiz in the amount of P50,000.00; g. Antonio S. Bernardo in the amount of P60,000.00; and, h. Henry Ilar in the amount of P25,000.00; all with legal rate of interest reckoned from the filing of the Information until fully paid. Appellant is a former policeman while the co-accused, Irene Yabut, is his common-law wife. Both were charged with estafa and illegal recruitment in large scale, but only appellant stood trial as Yabut has eluded arrest and remains at-large. The facts, as summarized by the Office of the Solicitor General, which we find to be duly supported by the records, are as follows:ii[2] On August 13, 1992, prosecution witness and private complainant Mr. Henry Ilar met for the first time the herein appellant, who was at that time a policeman, and his live-in partner and coaccused Irene Yabut, at Rm. 103 P.M. Apartelle, N. Domingo Street, San Juan, Metro Manila (TSN, June 9, 1993, pp. 3-7). Ilar handed over to the appellant and co-accused Irene Yabut the