La Union fiscal meted jail term of 147 years

BAGUIO CITY – A government prosecutor assigned in Agoo town in La Union was sentenced on Friday by a Baguio court with a total jail term of 147 years for large scale illegal recruitment, among others, including estafa.  Lawyer Catalino Pepi was found guilty by Regional Trial Court Branch 3 presiding Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan of simple illegal recruitment, illegal recruitment in large scale and 10 counts of estafa in the 15 cases filed by 13 persons.

Pamintuan’s 59-page ruling showed that the case against Pepi’s recruitment of 13 persons in 2002 were originally offered employment in Holland, South Korea, Japan and Brunei.

Each were promised with jobs in different countries but was however moved to different destinations until the most recent, they were all bound for South Korea.

Despite the promise of an employment abroad, the lawyer, who is the vice president of Transcend Employment Services was not able to send the 13 abroad, thus seeking the National Bureau of investigation’s help which led to the arrest of Pepi. He is detained at the Baguio City Jail.

Pamintuan ruled that for illegal recruitment to be present, the accused must have recruited a person, without a valid license to recruit and is unable to give the employment promised. At least two of the requisites were present in Pepi’s case.

For estafa to be pursued, there must be fraud or deceit by the accused to the prejudice of the victim. Both also were present in Pepi’s recruitment activities.

Court records bared that Pepi did not deny recruitment of the 13 persons as well as the receipt of the payment from them for an employment abroad that includes factory work, as farmers, technicians, welders and similar jobs in Ireland, England, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Pepi also did not deny issuing a receipt of the payment written in yellow pad as well as his avowals that he is a prosecutor in La Union.

But Pepi claimed that although he has no license to recruit in Baguio and the Cordillera, his agency – Transcend Employment Services – has a license to recruit issued in Manila and that he is acting as an agent and representative of the corporation being the vice president.

He also submitted to Pamintuan a decision of an RTC in San Fernando City, La Union acquitting him of an almost similar charge.

Pamintuan, however, insisted that the testimony of the POEA-Cordillera that the license to recruit of Transcend in Manila was revoked, needing a special recruitment authority from POEA-Cordillera.

The court ruled that a license issued by the POEA cannot be used in any place other than the place stated in the license and an additional office anywhere shall be subject to approval of the DOLE, thus strengthening the case against Pepi.