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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Court clears NLRC worker on estafa
By Ben O. Tesiorna
AN EMPLOYEE of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) was cleared by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) from charges of allegedly pocketing a settlement fee in a labor case.
Judge William Layague of RTC Branch 14 dismissed the case on alleged violation of RA 3019 (anti-graft and corrupt practices act) and estafa cases filed against Manuelita Ando, a stenographer of NLRC National Arbitration Office.
Layague supported the contention of the Ombudsman investigator Melinda Alconcel Dayanghirang that the charges need to be dismissed since complainants Quintin Yong and Isaias Dapitan already executed an affidavit of desistance.
The Ombudsman for Mindanao criminally charged Ando for failing to give to complainant Isaias Dapitan the amount of P17, 500, part of the P35, 000 amicable settlement promised by Quentin Yong, owner of Panda Bakehouse where Dapitan used to work.
Yong paid P17, 500 as first installment on April 25. He gave the money to Ando, who then promised to hand it over to Dapitan.
Yong went to the NLRC in the morning of April 25 supposedly to give the money to Dapitan.
Yong said Ando told him that Dapitan would be arriving in the afternoon.
When he returned that afternoon, Yong claimed, Ando told him to leave the amount since Dapitan would pick it up later. He said he called up the NLRC on April 28 to check on the money, and Ando told him that Dapitan had already received it.
He said he again went to NLRC regional office on May 24 to pay the balance. That day, Yong talked to lawyer Arturo Gamolo, the NLRC arbiter who handled the labor case.
Gamolo then directed Ando to give him the record of the case. On the record, an acknowledgment receipt showed that Dapitan had purportedly received the amount.
Then on May 27, Gamolo told Yong to come to the NLRC office after Dapitan complained that he never received the money. Yong said Gamolo told him and Dapitan that Ando had earlier confessed to the NLRC arbiter that she had personally used the money.
According to Dapitan in his affidavit, every time he called up the NLRC office to inquire about the payment, Ando would just tell him that Yong had not yet given the money.
(January 28, 2003 issue)
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