Gloria H. Reyes.[3] Mrs. Reyes asked them to accomplish the application forms. Thereafter, they were told to return to the office with P10,000.00 each as processing fee.[4] On July 30, 1998, private complainants returned to the agency to pay the processing fees. Mrs. Reyes was not at the agency that time, but she called appellant on the telephone to ask her to receive the processing fees. Thereafter, appellant advised them to wait for the contracts to arrive from the Taiwan employers. [5] Two months later, nothing happened to their applications. Thus, private complainants decided to ask for the refund of their money from appellant [6] who told them that the processing fees they had paid were already remitted to Mrs. Reyes. When they talked to Mrs. Reyes, she told them that the money she received from appellant was in payment of the latters debt. Thus, on January 13, 1999, private complainants filed their complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation [7] which led to the arrest and detention of appellant. On March 23, 2000, while the case was before the trial court, private complainants received the refund of their processing fees from appellants sister-in-law. Consequently, they executed affidavits of desistance[8] from participation in the case against appellant. For her part, appellant resolutely denied having a hand in the illegal recruitment and claimed that she merely received the money on behalf of Mrs. Reyes, the President/General Manager of Alga-Moher International Placement Services Corporation, where she had been working as secretary for three months prior to July 30, 1998. On that day, Mrs. Reyes called her on the telephone and told her to receive private complainants processing fees. In compliance with the order of her employer and since the cashier was absent, she received the processing fees of private complainants, which she thereafter remitted to Mrs. Reyes. She had no knowledge that the agencys license was suspended by the POEA on July 29, 1998.[9] On November 16, 2000, the trial court rendered the assailed decision, the dispositive portion of which reads: WHEREFORE, in view of the above observations and findings accused Elizabeth Beth Corpuz is hereby found guilty of the offense charged in the Information for violation of Sec. 6 (l), (m) in relation to Sec. 7 (b) of R.A. 8042 without any mitigating nor aggravating circumstances attendant to its commission, without applying the benefit of the Indeterminate Sentence Law, Elizabeth Beth Corpuz is hereby sentenced to suffer a life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P500,000.00. Her body is hereby committed to the custody of the Director of the Bureau of Correction for Women, Mandaluyong City thru the City Jail Warden of Manila. She shall be credited with the full extent of her preventive imprisonment under Art. 29 of the Revised Penal Code.