'Estafa queen,' husband plead 'not guilty' in latest fraud cases

Janice del Rosario, who has earned the moniker “estafa queen," entered a plea of “not guilty" on Wednesday in the syndicated estafa case filed by civilian employees of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) at Branch 221 of the Quezon City regional trial court. The petite del Rosario, 44, was transported back to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City after arraignment. Her 33-year-old husband, Kaye Gravador del Rosario, entered the same plea but was released on bail afterwards. The couple were deported from Toronto, Canada on January 21 this year to face numerous estafa cases in the Philippines estimated to involve some P250 million. After they had been deported, the couple were also charged with fraud and falsification of documents in Canada for a modus operandi similar to Ponzi out of which they allegedly took away some C$3 million from their victims, mostly Filipinos or foreigners married to Filipino women. Judge Jocelyn S. Reyes granted the petition of the couple’s lawyer, Rene Saguisag, to allow Kaye to post bail. The court set a bail of P40,000 for each of the pending five counts of estafa, for a sum of P200,000. Judge Reyes set the couple’s next appearance at her sala on April 25 for preliminary conference or pre-trial. They will also be appearing at Branch 98 for another set of estafa Cases on April 23 when defense and prosecution lawyers are supposed to identify the witnesses and pieces of evidence they intend to present in the course of the trial proper. Judge Reyes justified her decision to allow Kaye to post bail, invoking a Department of Justice guide on bailbond issued in 2000. Based on the complaint of the DILG employees, it appeared that the del Rosarios ran away with a total of P980,000 of their “investments" in the get-rich-quick scheme that promised them 10 percent monthly interest in September 2002. The complainants were Jennifer Amparo, Ma. Theresa Balanza, Maximo Tobian, Jovelyn Valdez, and Raul Cesar Muncada. Except for Valdez, they gave the DILG office as their address. The breakdown of their investments was as follows: Tabian, P150,000; Amparo, P300,000; Balanza, P200,000; Valdez, P100,000, and Muncada, P200,000. They said it was Janice, using the company JDR Holdings with an address in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, who lured them into placing their money into her business in exchange of 10 to 15 percent monthly interest. Their harrowing experience began in May 2003 when they failed to convert into cash the post-dated checks Janice issued to them representing interests on their investments and the principal investment. The complainants said they were surprised to find out from the bank that del Rosario’s account had been closed. Janice never attempted to settle her financial obligations. Janice is already serving a term of eight years for eight counts of estafa for which she was convicted in 1998 in a Quezon City court. She also has to serve another four years imprisonment for another set of eight counts of estafa for which she was convicted by a San Juan metropolitan trial court judge in 1997 involving P1.7 million worth of jewelry. Janice used the aliases Flor Kong, Flordeliza Kong Pace, Flordeliza Kong Pace Tayzon, Janet del Rosario, Janice Florence Kong Pace del Rosario, Flordeliza Tayzon and Janeth C. del Rosario in her business dealings with people she befriended and enticed to entrust their life savings to her with a promise of high returns. Earlier in February, the couple also pleaded “not guilty" on yet another set of estafa cases at sala of Judge Evelyn Corpus Cabochan of the QC RTC Branch 98, filed by Police Superintendent Constante Agpaoa and his wife, Francisca, also a police officer. The Agpaoa couple has been trying to recover their P7.16 million investments to the del Rosarios. Judge Cabochan also allowed Kaye to post a bail of P20,000 for that case. Saguisag argued that Kaye was not involved in the financial transactions of Janice, thus he should be allowed to post bail. Thereby, he succeeded in getting the court to agree to downgrade the syndicated estafa case into simple estafa. Syndicated estafa partakes the nature of a criminal offense that carries a penalty of life imprisonment, and is therefore not bailable. Saguisag contended that the basic elements of syndicated estafa were not present in the complaints. For one, he said, the victims placed their investments in their individual capacities. Neither were the victims farmers, or members of cooperatives, or associations that solicited the investments from the public. “The law has elements and you have to show that the elements are present in a crime to justify why you are charging a person with such a crime," he argued. “If we will not follow the law, then this is a society in decay," he added. Presidential Decree No.1689, issued in April 1980, increased the penalty for estafa to a life sentence, from 12 to 20 years under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code. The penalty was graduated for cases of swindling or estafa when the fraud involved funds contributed by stockholders or members of rural banks, cooperatives, samahang nayons, or farmers’ associations, or funds solicited by corporations or associations from the public, causing the erosion of confidence in the banking and cooperative system. Saguisag said he wanted to at least get Kaye out of jail so he could take care of the del Rosario children aged 13 and 8 who were deported with them on Jan. 21 from Toronto, Canada. The couple together with the children flew to Canada in March 2003. In April 2006, the Canadian immigration denied their application for asylum after discovering that they face a string of cases of estafa in the Philippines and that their claims of harassment in the country were made-up stories. The couple disappeared on the eve of Nov. 16, 2006 when they were supposed to appear before the immigration authorities for their deportation to the Philippines. Their agony turned for the worse when Filipinos married to Canadians in Toronto discovered the fraud and started to complain to the police about the illegal activities. The couple was believed to have amassed around C$3.5 million or equivalent of about P145 million "investments" from people they befriended, and issued checks drawn against the account of Gloval Venture Placement and Trading. The checks were dishonored because the del Rosarios’ bank accounts had been emptied. The couple was captured in January 2007 and immediately deported to the Philippines. It was learned from some of their victims in Canada that the couple lived in luxury during their stay in Toronto. They leased a five-bedroom house with a gourmet kitchen that has granite counter top for C$4,700 a month. The owner of the house has put it on sale for C$1 million after the del Rosarios had been deported, and unable to pay the balance on their lease. Del Rosario’s first child, 25-year-old Jose Vicente Tayzon, was left behind in Canada. He was the only one in the family whose stay there was legal because he managed to get a student visa. - GMANews.TV