The undersigned State Prosecutor of the Department of Justice and Presidential Anti-Crime Commission hereby accuses Irene Yabut and Fernando Cortez for (sic) Illegal Recruitment as defined and penalized under Articles 38 and 39 of Presidential Decree No. 422 as Amended, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines, committed as follows: That during the period from June to September, 1992 or thereabouts, in San Juan, Metro Manila and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused mutually confederating and conspiring with each other did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously contract, enlist and recruit for a fee, eight (8) persons for employment abroad without first obtaining the required license and/or authority from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. CONTRARY TO LAW. Manila, for Makati, Metro Manila, March 31, 1993 Francisco F. Benedicto, Jr. State Prosecutor II Upon arraignment, appellant entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.iv[4] Accused Irene Yabut already fled and was not arraigned. During joint trial, the prosecution presented as its witnesses three (3) of the complainants, namely: (1) Henry L. Ilar; (2) Reynaldo P. Claudio; and (3) Arnel M. Diana. The testimonies of the other five (5) complainants were dispensed with upon the agreement of the prosecution and the defense that affidavits would be offered as their testimonies. The corresponding receipts issued by accused Yabut for amounts received from complainants were marked as evidence for the prosecution.v[5] For the defense, appellant testified on his behalf. He admitted that accused Irene Yabut was his live-in partner with whom he has a child, but he washed his hands of any participation in her business activities. He further insisted that Yabut was not engaged in recruitment of workers for overseas employment but only in the processing of visas. He also denied any knowledge of the special power of attorney executed in his favor by Yabut for the refund of the PAL tickets of several recruits. Moreover, he claimed that he was not present at any given time when large sums of money were received by Yabut and that he never gave any assurances to complainants regarding their departure to Japan.vi[6] The prosecution then presented complainants Antonio S. Bernardo, Fely M. Casanova, and Henry L. Ilar as rebuttal witnesses to refute appellants denials and protestations of innocence regarding accused Yabuts recruitment activities. On February 16, 1994, the trial court rendered a decisionvii[7] acquitting appellant of eight (8) counts of estafa but convicting him of illegal recruitment in large scale. The dispositive portion of the decision states: