Except for the name of the offended party, the amount involved and the date of the
commission of the crime, the following information in Criminal Case No. Q-94-58107
typified the other informations for the crime of estafa:
The undersigned accuses BETH N. BANZALES of the crime of Estafa,
committed as follows:
That in or about the 16th day of November, 1993 in Quezon City, Philippines,
the said accused BETH N. BANZALES did then and there willfully, unlawfully
and feloniously defraud ELIZABETH M. BERNAL in the following manner, to
wit: the said accused, by means of false manifestations and fraudulent
representations which she made to said ELIZABETH M. BERNAL to the effect
that she had the power and capacity to recruit and employ Factory Workers in
Taiwan and could facilitate the processing of the pertinent papers if given the
necessary amount to meet the requirements thereof, and by means of other
similar deceits, induced and succeeded in inducing said ELIZABETH M.
BERNAL to give and deliver, as in fact gave and deliver to said accused the
amount of P15,00.00 on the strength of said manifestations and
representations, said accused well knowing that the same were false and
fraudulent and were made solely to obtain, as in fact she did obtain the
amount of P15,000.00 which amount once in possession, with intent to
defraud ELIZABETH M. BERNAL willfully, unlawfully and feloniously
misappropriated, misapplied and converted to her own personal use and
benefit, to the damage and prejudice of said ELIZABETH M. BERNAL in the
aforesaid amount of P15,000.00 Philippine Currency.
CONTRARY TO LAW.[3]
As said indictments are founded on the same facts, the cases were tried jointly. On
January 9, 1995, accused-appellant Beth N. Banzales entered a plea of not guilty to
each of the charges, whereupon trial commenced.
As can be gleaned from the Informations, accused-appellant Beth N. Banzales
promised employment in Taiwan to at least nine (9) people, six of whom, namely,
Elizabeth Bernal, Domingo Mariano, Apolinario Baldoza, Angelo Ballester, Eva Amada
and Rizza Oliva, appeared in court to testify against her. Complainants Rodolfo
Tolentino, Noel Manangguil and Dennis Guirre did not appear in court.
We adopt the following summary of the evidence for the prosecution by the Office of
the Solicitor General[4] as it is fully supported by the transcripts of stenographic notes of
the testimonies of the complainants:
Sometime in the middle of September 1993, appellant visited Estrella Casis,
the Manager of Adidas, Novaliches, Metro Manila. At such visit, Elizabeth