CEBU, Philippines - Three former employees of the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House Inc. (CPCMHI) are facing a non-bailable offense for allegedly conspiring with each other in taking P1.3 million.
Prosecutor Rhodna Bacatan charged Marilou Amaca, a reliever cashier; Noemi Gabuya, formerly cashier but promoted as senior bookkeeper; and Madiel Santillan, a regular cashier for qualified theft.
Bacatan said despite the defenses of the accused denying the allegations, they failed to prevail over the allegation of Marilou Araco, the chief accountant of CPCMHI.
“Under the present facts, the defense of denial was without corroboration, thus, miserably failed to out weight the positive allegation of complainant,” Bacatan’s resolution reads.
In her complaint, Araco said that the respondents were assigned to handle the funds in the CPCMHI.
After making the deposit, the slip will be given to the chief accountant for verification.
However, for several occasions, the respondents allegedly failed to present to her the deposit slip, saying the same was still with the bank. She reportedly believed the excuse at first but eventually started having doubts when the respondents used the same excuse over and over again.
Araco said that in the early part of July 2010, she personally did the counting of sales and made the deposit and asked another employee to check the bank and reconcile the records.
Thereafter, she discovered that the funds and cash received a week before were not deposited. She also discovered a difference of P1,390,011.67.
Araco said she then called the three respondents to a meeting and it was at that time when they reportedly admitted taking and using the money.
After the case was filed before the prosecutor’s office, Bacatan summoned the respondents to file their counter-affidavits to answer the allegations. Amaca failed to do so
In their counter-affidavits, Gabuya and Santillan denied the allegations and claimed the complaint was but a form of “harassment.”
Gabuya claimed that she was no longer a cashier in 2010 and it was difficult for her to participate in the alleged crime. Santillan, for her part, blamed Amaca for the crime.
But Bacatan said that the facts gathered established a conspiracy among the respondents.
“The manner in which the offense was perpetrated evidenced a joint or common purpose and design, concerted action and community of interest among them,” Bacatan said.
“The fact that they were able to keep their scheme undetected for a period of time definitely established the synchronized acts of respondents in carrying out their common objective of taking complainant’s money,” she said further.
Gabuya and Santillan filed a motion for reconsideration seeking for the reversal of the ruling. They said the complainant “do not establish the commission of the crime and do not establish conspiracy.”
Prosecutor Maria Theresa Casiño who resolved the motion said no new evidence was presented to warrant the reversal of the ruling as accused defenses in their motion were already raised in their counter-affidavits. — (FREEMAN)