Cagayan de Oro City—Northern Mindanao Regional State Prosecutor Jaime Umpa on Thursday said that the case of Illegal recruitment and large-scale estafa against Philippine School of Science and Technology officials showed the accused are primary suspects and not victims even as its lawyer, Jerome Jarales, played down their role in the case.
The case was filed by six students of the school after they were promised by the school officials guaranteed overseas job placement. The officials introduced Jessie Cunahap, head of Jespher Travel Tour and Visa Consultancy, to the students.
Two hundred seventeen students were allegedly duped by Cunahap who carted away P2.2 million.
Umpa said that the school officials are primary suspects because they were the ones who brought in Cunahap and allowed him to use the school facilities in the conduct of his illegal recruitment.
Jarales earlier claimed that the school officials are innocents of the charges filed against them as he sought the withdrawal of Warrant of Arrest against Amy Bendisula, Pamela Verda, Rubelyn Llovia, Rodrigo Bendisula, Noel Bendisula, Krista Anna Bendisula, Louie Bendisula and Agnes Bendisula.
“The officials are the primary suspects of the illegal recruitment and estafa because they entered into an agreement with Cunahap, brought him in and introduced him to the students, they cannot be innocent in this case,” Umpa said.
Records from the school presented by Jarales showed that officials entered in to a Memorandum of Agreement with Cunahap and as such were allowed by the school to collect P202,500 from 90 students for document translation into Nihongo, P217,000 from 34 students who applied for work for Korea, P150,000 for 10 students applying for work in Macau, P630,000 for 18 students applying for work in Malaysia, P570,000 for 57 students applying for work in Australia, and P450,000 for 3 students applying for work in Fiji.
The amount collected was for processing of documents of the students of the school.
“There could have been no money collected and no recruitment if not for the school official’s action to bring in Cunahap,” Umpa said.
Umpa also found it suspicious for the school officials to be innocent when they failed to verify the legitimacy and legality of Cunahap’s company. “How come you enter into a MoA without verifying Cunahap? And yet they vetted for him during Cunahap’s recruitment activities inside the school,” Umpa said.
Umpa added that they are also in talk with other students who fell prey to the scam and will expand their investigation on the sphere of activities conducted by the school and Cunahap.