Assistant City Prosecutor Ronald Torralba did not recommend any bail for Emilia Sison, 48, of 95 Doña Juliana Street, Filinvest Homes in Cainta, Rizal. Torralba, who conducted an inquest on a complaint filed by about a hundred victims of the pyramiding scheme, said "there are many more complainants against her but we’re dealing initially with an amount worth at least P20 million."
Central Police District operatives arrested the suspect in Cubao last Monday. Police said Sison, the president of International Commodities Sales Export (ICSE) allegedly engaged in a pyramiding marketing scheme and was wanted by authorities for several cases of estafa.
Sison and ICSE came under police investigation for wide-scale financial fraud after the company suddenly ceased operations.
The company’s alleged come-on was an eight to 15 percent profit per month to prospective victims who had to invest P50,000. However, the principal amount can only be withdrawn by an investor after six months.
As a guarantee, the company issued post-dated checks in the form of a monthly interest to each stakeholder. But the complainants said all the checks that Sison and her company had released bounced because of "closed accounts" in certain banks.
Sison had denied the charges against her and even threatened to sue those who had besmirched her reputation by identifying her as one of the brains behind the scandal.
Assistant City Prosecutor Torralba said he had been working overtime to get the charges against the suspect filed in court.
At the Office of the City Prosecutor yesterday, The STAR observed a pile of documents relating to the case rising to more than a foot thick. The scam attracted not only active and retired police and military generals but also enlisted personnel in the police and military service. Most of them had to apply for a loan at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Savings and Loans and Association Inc. to be able to invest.
Earlier, police charged Sison with multiple counts of large-scale estafa and violation of the Anti-Bouncing Check Law.
About a hundred of the estimated 5,000 duped investors trooped to the Central Police District (CPD) headquarters early this week to re-file formal complaints after learning that the suspect was apprehended.
The complainants, who claim to have lost millions of pesos to Sison, jeered and cursed at the suspect as she was escorted to the CPD detention cell.
Sison denied all the accusations made against her, pointing out that while being president of the company, she was not directly involved in handling investors’ money.
Police apprehended Sison, together with a certain Esteban Domingo, after one of her complainants, Zennaida Ruffon, spotted them shopping at Rustans in Cubao at about 3 p.m. Monday. Domingo is reportedly the manager of an ICSE branch in Bicol.
Ruffon, who was with her husband Pedro at the time, told police that they were shocked when they saw the suspect because they were sure "she had gone into hiding."
The husband confronted the two suspects, but Domingo immediately pulled out a 9-mm pistol and pointed it at him. The suspect then introduced himself as a policeman and told the Ruffons "not to come near Ms. Sison."
The couple sought help of the store’s security guards who immediately alerted proper authorities. CPD operatives arrived at the scene and brought the suspects to Camp Karingal.
Ruffon owns the building where the ICSE office is housed at 469 Boni Serrano Road corner 15th Avenue, Cubao, in Quezon City. The Ruffons claim that Sison owes them about P17 million.
Sources claimed that since 1982, policemen, soldiers and their wives have invested between P100,000 to 200,000 in Sison’s company.
But the complainants said all the checks that Sison and her company had released bounced because of "closed accounts" in certain banks.