Republic of the Philippines SUPREME COURT Manila SECOND DIVISION G.R. No. 143726 February 23, 2004 PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, appellee, vs. LETICIA SAGAYAGA, ALMA SO, VICENTE SO YAN HAN and ORLANDO BURGOS, accused. LETICIA SAGAYAGA, appellant. DECISION CALLEJO, SR., J.: This is an appeal from the Decision1 of the Regional Trial Court of Manila, Branch 35, convicting the appellant Leticia Sagayaga of large scale illegal recruitment as defined in Section 6, Republic Act No. 8042 and sentencing her to suffer life imprisonment. The Indictment The appellant was charged with large scale illegal recruitment in an Information, the accusatory portion of which reads: That during the period from October 1997 to December 1997 and sometime prior or subsequent thereto, in the City of Manila, Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, above-named accused, conspiring, confederating and helping each other and representing themselves to have the power, capacity and lawful authority to deploy complainants as factory workers in Taiwan, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously recruit and promise employment to ELMER JANER, ERIC FAROL and ELMER RAMOS for and in consideration of amounts ranging from P70,000.00 to P75,000.00 which they paid to said accused, without the latter having deployed and/or reimbursed complainants of their payments despite demands, to the damage and prejudice of said complainants. CONTRARY TO LAW.2 Only the appellant was arrested, duly arraigned, and, with the assistance of counsel, pleaded not guilty to the crime charged. The other accused remained at large. The Case for the Prosecution As culled by the Office of the Solicitor General, the facts which triggered the case in the trial court are as follows: Re: Elmer Janer Sometime in the last week of October 1997, Elmer Janer went to the office of Alvis Placement Service Corporation located at AP Building 1563 F. Agoncillo St., corner Pedro Gil St., Ermita, Manila, to apply for overseas employment as factory worker in Taiwan (pp. 4, 5 and 14, TSN, September 7, 1999). Appellant Leticia Sagayaga, after personally receiving Elmer's application, required him to submit the necessary documents (p. 5, TSN, September 7, 1999). Appellant further asked Elmer to pay seventy-five thousand pesos (P75,000.00) as placement fee (Id.). Elmer paid the said fee to appellant in three (3) installments, the first, on November 5, 1997, in the amount of twenty-five thousand pesos (P25,000.00); the second, on November 13, 1997, in the amount of five thousand pesos (P5,000.00); and the third, on November 19, 1997, in the amount of forty-five thousand pesos (P45,000.00). All the payments were made inside Alvis Placement Agency (p. 6, id.).