Sentenced to 147 years for illegal recruitment: Jailed prosecutor vows to get back at detractors

By Dexter See

BAGUIO CITY — A prosecutor assigned in Agoo, La Union who is now in jail here after he was sentenced to a jail term of 147 years for large-scale illegal recruitment vowed to fight his case in court and go after his detractors.

In a 59-page decision, Regional Trial Court Branch 3 Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan found lawyer Catalino Pepi guilty of simple illegal recruitment, large-scale illegal recruitment, and 10 counts of estafa in 15 cases filed against him by 13 persons.

The decision arose from complaints of the 13 individuals who were allegedly offered employment in Holland, South Korea, Japan, and Brunei.

The same decision stated the promise of employment in a certain destination was eventually moved to different places until recently when the complainants, all residents of this city, were told they were bound for South Korea.

Court records showed Pepi, vice president of Transcend Employment Services, was not able to deploy the 13 persons abroad. This led to the filing of the complaints with the National Bureau of Investigation whose agents later arrested the lawyer.

The court noted that Pepi did not deny recruiting the 13 persons as well as the receipt of the payment for overseas employment. Moreover, he could not deny issuing receipts of payments written in yellow pads as well as the claim of the complainants that he had told them he is a prosecutor in La Union.

Pepi’s defense was that although he has no license to recruit in this city and the Cordillera, his agency, Transcend Employment Services, has a license in Manila and that he is acting as an agent and representative of the corporation, being its vice president.

He presented a decision of an RTC judge in San Fernando City, La Union who acquitted him of a similar charge.

A testimony of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration personnel in the Cordillera stated that although the license of Transcend to recruit was issued in Manila, the same license was subsequently revoked.

POEA testified that a license cannot be used in any place other than the place stated in the license and the establishment of an additional office anywhere is subject to approval by the Department of Labor and Employment.

The court ordered Pepi to pay to the 13 complainants P1.73 million in moral and actual damages