40 who failed to take test will not pursue case vs ANZ execs

 Forty of the 72 professionals who failed to take the International English Language Training System examination last Saturday have decided not to pursue their plan to file case in court against officials of ANZ International.

This after Annabelle Diez, the manager of ANZ International, reimbursed the P8,640 examination fee to each of the 40 clients who were prevented from taking the test last Saturday for unknown reasons.

 But there were other clients who failed to collect their reimbursement as Diez ran out of funds.

But lawyer Santiago Ortiz, the counsel of Diez, has assured that her client would pay the other complainants in exchange for not pursuing their plan to file an estafa case against her.

The reimbursement of the examination fees was done in front of Regional Trial Court Branch 6 Judge Ester Veloso, who was supposed to hear the petition for a writ of habeas corpus yesterday.

Ortiz had asked the court to help his client, Mary Barimbao, the secretary of Diez who was “illegally detained” by the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group since last Saturday.

But CIDG deputy regional chief for operations Superintendent Rex Derilo explained to the court that they detained Barimbao after she was arrested by the clients of ANZ International for alleged estafa.

The complainants, who are all clients of ANZ International, have claimed that Barimbao and Diez collected examination fees from them but prevented them from taking the test.

Diez has admitted that they failed to remit the examination fees, but explained that in the past, the administrators of the International Development Program had allowed their clients to take the exam even if the ANZ had not yet paid.

Last Saturday, the surprised clients were waiting outside the hotel’s function room – the venue of the test — when IDP administrators told them their names were not on the list of examinees.

This prompted them to make a citizens arrest on Diez and bring her to the CIDG-7 office. The ANZ International is an accredited agency of the IDP to facilitate the taking of International English Language Testing System examination, a requirement for professionals who wanted to work abroad. — Rene U. Borromeo/LPM