4/10/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly On appeal, the CA affirmed the findings of fact of the trial court in the former’s assailed Decision, but modified the award of damages, to wit:[8] WHEREFORE, the Appeal is DISMISSED. The assailed Decision dated June 27, 2008 of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 16 of Zamboanga City in Criminal Case No. 19921 is AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION that the amount of exemplary damages in favor of the private complainants be reduced to P25,000.00 each. SO ORDERED. In the present appeal, instead of filing a supplemental brief, both accused-appellant and the Office of the Solicitor General opted to adopt their respective Briefs filed with the CA. The appeal is unmeritorious. To be convicted of the crime of illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate, the following elements must occur:[9] 1. The accused have no valid license or authority required by law to enable them to lawfully engage in the recruitment and placement of workers. 2. The accused engaged in this activity of recruitment and placement by actually recruiting, deploying and transporting. 3. Illegal recruitment was committed by three persons conspiring and confederating with one another. As to the first element, accused-appellant admitted that she did not have a valid license to recruit persons for overseas employment, consistent with her defense that she did not engage in the recruitment of persons for employment. Anent the second element, both victims, AAA and BBB, narrated in great detail how they were induced by accused-appellant to accept an employment opportunity, and how they were successfully transported from Zamboanga City to Malaysia where they eventually worked as prostituted women. On the third element, accused-appellant posits that the prosecution failed to prove that there were more than two persons involved in the alleged crime of illegal recruitment, since the trial court held only two of the accused liable for the crime. The prosecution, she alleges, failed to establish that the other accused Macky, Jun, and Tas also had no license or authority to recruit workers for overseas employment. In the recent case People v. Lalli,[10] we affirmed the trial court’s findings in which 2 of the 3 accused were convicted of illegal recruitment committed by a syndicate, even elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/54824 5/10