Saguisag seeks downgrading of case vs deported couple from Canada

Former senator Rene Saguisag is asking the court to downgrade to simple estafa the charge of syndicated estafa filed against the Filipino couple deported in January from Canada and allow his clients to post bail. The essential elements of a syndicated estafa are not there," Saguisag told GMANews.TV on Wednesday. It was the latest of a long list of estafa cases against Janice del Rosario, 44. Her husband, Kaye Gravador del Rosario, 33, is included in the charge. Syndicated estafa is a non-bailable offense that carries a penalty of life imprisonment under Presidential Decree No. 1689. The case was lodged before the sala of Quezon City regional trial court Judge Jocelyn S. Reyes, of Branch 221. 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. Court employees refused to provide or even show a copy of the complaint, but gave the names of some of the complainants as Jennifer Amparo, Ma. Theresa Balanza, Maximo Tobias, Johnny Valdez and Raul Cesar Miranda, said to be either employees of the Department of Interior and Local Government, or their relatives. GMANews.TV tried but failed to locate the complainants at the main office of the DILG on Edsa, Quezon City. “This is not Balajay or MMG," Saguisag said when interviewed on the phone. He was referring to Rosario and Saturnino Balajay of Multi-tel who have been in jail since 2003 for engaging in pyramiding scam. MMG refers to the Mateo Management Group, another firm engaged in the get-rich-quick business scheme. MTST of Maria Teresa Santos Trading is another of pyramid firms estimated to have accumulated P15 billion in dubious investments. They include ICS Exports, and Glasgow Exsior all believed to be under the protection of police generals. A police general, who reportedly gave his singer-girlfriend a Porsche sports car, was a frequent visitor of a music bar owned by one of the pyramiding operators. The racket involves the promise of 10 to 20 percent monthly return on investments. It is not clear where the money goes, but investigators suspect that casino operations have benefited from the money. Saguisag said Janice del Rosario was engaged in the business on her own. “Even the husband was not involved in her business. This is a one-woman show. Is there a one-woman syndicate?" he asked. Besides, he said the victims placed their investments in their individual capacities. “The victims here are not farmers, cooperatives, or associations that solicited from the public," Saguisag said. “This is a simple case of estafa," he asserted. “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 Penall 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. The police consolidated several complaints of estafa against the del Rosarios and made it syndicate estafa, saying the couple used the company JDR Holdings with an address in Tomas Morato, Quezon City in convincing potential clients to invest in a high interest-yielding business. Under PD 1689, forms of swindling or estafa that is not committed by a syndicate may be penalized with a life sentence if the amount of the fraud exceeds P100,000. Janice has a string of estafa cases, some of which date back to 1986, and estimated to involve P250 million. Between 2001 and 2003, she was said to have lured some 200 police and military officers into placing their money in a re-discounting loan facility with a promise of 10 percent monthly interest. From interviews with her victims, it appeared that del Rosario issued checks that the “investors" were able to convert into cash during the initial months, but as they placed more money into her dubious business, she would disappear with no trace. She seemingly moved from one place to another, using different names, to avoid being tracked down and be able to continue doing her “business" with new “investors." 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 Toronto, Canada where the couple got around C$3.5 million (equivalent to about P145 million)"investments" from people they befriended, they issued checks drawn against the account of Gloval Venture Placement and Trading. Janice managed to make her investors believe that she was engaged in the buying and selling of high-end jewelry. She promised a 10 percent return on their investments in just 10 days. In the Philippines, Janice issued post-dated checks representing five to 10 percent interest earnings on “investments" per month. “For two years, the checks were good until we learned that they had left the country," said Police Supt. Constante Agpaoa who lost P7.16 million of his life savings and those of his relatives and friends. Cecilia Ramos, a Filipino working as mortgage broker in Canada, wrote in an e-mail to GMANews.TV that she and her partner, Michael Labrecque, lost C$120,000 to Janice. “It has been a horror story for us in the last three months after we found out Janice's lack of intention to pay back the money she owed to us," Ramos said. The victims in Canada, mostly Filipinos or foreign nationals married to Filipino women, learned about the deception in early October when the post-dated checks issued by Janice started to bounce. According to Labrecque, Janice began soliciting for investments in August 2006, three months after the Canadian government handed down its final rejection of the del Rosarios’ application for asylum. “From then on, with persistence and determination to investigate her background, we discovered all her lies and numerous charges pending in the Philippines," Ramos wrote. The del Rosario couple arrived in Manila on January 21. One month later, they were arraigned on a case involving the Agpaoas. Janice was transferred to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City while Kaye was detained several kilometers away at the Quezon City jail. It was learned from police sources that the couple has four standing arrest warrants from San Juan, Makati, and Paranaque also on estafa cases. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV