6/30/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly failed to see accused-appellant Bautista in person. They were instead told to go and see accused-appellant Bautista's co-accused Buenconsejo, who was supposedly the one who would speak to them about the money that they had given to accused-appellant Bautista. Buenconsejo, in turn, issued checks to Randy's companions, equivalent to the monies they had given accused-appellant Bautista. Randy, for his part, refused to accept a check as payment, suspicious that such would turn out to be unfunded. The checks Buenconsejo issued later bounced, and Randy has since remained unable to recover the money he parted with in favor of accusedappellant Bautista.[8] On cross-examination, Randy recounted how his former agent from Seven Blazy Agency, one Maribel Ramos (Maribel), introduced accused-appellant Bautista to him as the runner of accused Buenconsejo, and the one in charge of the processing of documents and Korean language instruction. Randy further claimed that accusedappellant Bautista represented that accused Buenconsejo was the owner of the recruitment agency, who later on denied having any connections with the said agency. Randy finally noted that he did not bother to check whether Fil Overseas Sandigan agency was registered with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), since the office of the former was located right beside the POEA office.[9] The prosecution also presented the testimony of Rolando, private complainant in Criminal Case No. MC09-12515 and one of the complainants in Criminal Case No. MC09-12517. He testified that similarly to Randy, Rolando was also introduced to accused-appellant Bautista by Maribel, who told him that accused-appellant Bautista was looking for workers to be sent to South Korea, as replacement for those applicants who backed out.[10] On the promise that he would be deployed to South Korea, Rolando gave accused-appellant Bautista a total of PI44,000.00 paid in seven installments, to supposedly cover the swapping fee, the visa processing expenses, as well as airfare costs. Rolando added that after submitting to accused-appellant Bautista his passport, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance, medical certificate and a Certificate of Korean language proficiency, accused-appellant Bautista issued in his favor a Standard Labor Contract.[11] Finally, the prosecution presented Efren, the private complainant in Criminal Case No. MC09-12511 and one of the complainants in Criminal Case No. MC09-12517. For his part, Efren testified that he also met accused-appellant Bautista through Maribel, and that accused-appellant Bautista also represented that he was recruiting applicants for work in South Korea. Efren added that in order to be included among the list of recruits, he gave accused-appellant Bautista a total of PI 59,000.00. Despite said payments, however, accused-appellant Bautista failed to deploy Efren to South Korea as promised, and he later discovered that the recruitment agency he paid fees to had already closed.[12] Evidence of the Defense Accused-appellant Bautista countered that he was merely an administrative assistant of Baler Aurora Travel & Tours, Inc., which in turn is owned by his co-accused Buenconsejo https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66754 8/20