Woman charged for illegal recruitment and estafa

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Prosecutor's Office charged a woman for illegal recruitment and estafa for allegedly operating without any license from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).

Prosecutor II Aida Sanchez recommended a bail of P24,000 for accused Cheryl Maede Gracia-Enguio.

Private complainant Angelito Eviota, in his affidavit, stated that sometime in 2007, Enguio offered him the possibility of working in Canada as a caregiver.

On December 4, 2007, he initially gave Enguio 3,000 Canadian dollars, which Enguio received personally at her office at the Bureau of Internal Revenue Cebu City South in N. Bacalso St., Cebu City.

On June 2, 2008, he gave another 2,000 Canadian dollars, another $1,000 on June 13, 2008 and $150 Canadian dollars for the Canadian Embassy as part of the processing fee.

Eviota added that right after his initial payment in December 4, 2007, he was told by the accused that the processing will start soon. He completed the entire payment to speed up the processing.

However, several months have passed and he kept on inquiring from Enguio about his application. She told her to be patient until it came to a point that she could no longer be contacted.

He decided to proceed to Enguio's office to ask her to return the money. However, she failed to do so, thus, the filing of the complaint.

He added that Enguio has no POEA license to hire workers for abroad.

Prosecutor Sanchez, in a resolution, stated that a subpoena was sent to Enguio last September 22, 2010 through registered mail but no counter-affidavit has been filed so the case was resolved based on the evidence on record.

Sanchez added that based on the allegations of the complainant and without evidence to controvert these, there is reasonable ground to believe that the crimes of estafa and illegal recruitment have been committed and that Enguio is probably guilty. –(FREEMAN)