in the service of their sentence in accordance with Article 29 of the
Revised Penal Code.
SO ORDERED.
[54]
In rendering the decision, the trial court ruled that by their acts, Buli-e and Josefina,
conspired and confederated with one another in the illegal recruitment of complainants
for overseas employment. Buli-e performed the recruitment activities in Baguio and
Josefina, in Manila. The trial court specifically noted Buli-es acts of accompanying the
complainants
to
Manila
for
their
medical
examinations,
securing complainants NBIclearances and passports as well as receiving complainants
downpayments for the purported placement fee as an indication that she directly
participated in the recruitment of all complainants. The trial court observed that Buli-e
practically confessed her acts of recruitment in open court and justified the same by
claiming that she was just acting as an agent of Josefina or was authorized to act in
behalf of the latter.
As regards Josefina, the trial court held that she directly participated in the
recruitment of complainants even if she did not personally go to Baguio City since she
received the applications and other requirements such as NBI clearances, passports,
bio-data as well as the advanced payments of complainants from Buli-e. Either she or
her husband Jose, or both of them, entertained complainants who were brought by Bulie to their home at No. 11 Concorde Street, Airmans Village, Las Pias, Metro
Manila. The spouses repeatedly promised to work or make arrangements for
complainants deployment abroad.
The trial court ruled that the authority given to Josefina as Overseas Marketing
Director of RSI, a duly licensed employment agency, was confined to negotiating with
foreign employers in Taiwan and she was not supposed to recruit overseas Filipino
workers. The court stressed that assuming Josefina was authorized to recruit in Manila,
she had no authority to do so in Baguio City. Citing Article 29 of the Labor Code which
states that no license or authority shall be used directly or indirectly by any person other
than the one in whose favor it was issued or at any place other than that stated in the
license or authority, nor may such license or authority be transferred or conveyed to any
other person or entity, the trial court ruled that appellants could not use the RSI license
in Manila to recruit overseas contract workers in Baguio City.
The trial court further noted that the license of RSI employment office was already
suspended on June 8, 1992 and expired on July 14, 1992. Consequently, the authority
given by RSI to Josefina was likewise suspended on June 8, 1992 and expired on July
14, 1992.
Finally, the trial court said that Josefinas act of returning the advanced payments of
some of complainants would not exculpate her and only proved that she had in fact
received money from complainants who were made to believe that they would be
deployed abroad at the soonest possible time.