if undertaken by non-licensees or non-holders of authority. If illegal recruitment is committed in large scale, that is, against three or more persons individually or as a group, it is considered an offense involving economic sabotage and carries a higher penalty. The same rule applies if illegal recruitment is committed by a syndicate. The essential elements of the crime of illegal recruitment in large scale can thus be summarized as follows: (1) the accused engages in acts of recruitment and placement of workers, as defined under Article 13 (b), or in any prohibited activities under Article 34 of the Labor Code; (2) the accused has not complied with the guidelines issued by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, particularly with respect to the securing of a license or an authority to recruit and deploy workers, either locally or overseas; and (3) the accused commits the same unlawful acts against three or more persons, individually or as a group.xv[15] The first and third elements of the offense were sufficiently proven by the prosecution. That the accused-appellant actually engaged in recruitment activities was clearly established through the testimonies of the complaining witnesses who corroborated each others accounts in describing accused-appellants modus operandi. These witnesses were united in pointing to Remedios as the one who inveigled them into handing over their hard-earned money in exchange for work abroad. As to the second element of the offense charged, the certification issued by the Chief of Licensing of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration unequivocally shows that accused-appellant does not have the requisite license or authority to engage in the recruitment and placement of workers abroad. Not once did the accused-appellant refute th is fact. In her defense, accused-appellants version was that it was her common-law husband, Reynaldo, who was, in fact, engaged in recruitment activities and that she was only acting as his personal secretary when she transacted with the complainants herein. In an attempt to elicit the sympathy of the court, she further claimed that she too was a victim in this case, as she herself was promised employment abroad by Reynaldo. The theory of the defense unduly strains the credulity of this Court. For one, the testimonies of the complaining witnesses do not bear out accused-appellants claim that she merely performed administrative or clerical tasks for her common-law husband. On the contrary, the complainants positively identified Remedios as the one who directly dealt with them from the time they inquired about the job prospects abroad until they complied with the requirements and followed up their applications. It was she who assured them of their deployment abroad and received the placement fees they paid. The undisputable fact, therefore, was that she led herein complainants to believe that she could send them abroad to work. She cannot now feign innocence by claiming that she was merely acting in behalf of her husband. More important is that there is no showing that any of the complainants had ill motives against the accused other than to bring her to the bar of justice for her deception. Besides, as the Court held in another illegal recruitment case, with the accused-appellants failure to present the person who was allegedly responsible for the recruitment of the complainants, she