THE case against a woman sued for estafa for failing to appropriate the P28 million entrusted to her is set to be tried before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 16.
Based on the list of raffled cases from the RTC Office of the Clerk of Court, the estafa case filed against Elsie M. Batoon was raffled off to RTC Branch 16 with presiding Judge Emmanuel Carpio.
Prosecutor Marte MelchorVelasco, in a resolution dated May 21, recommended the filing of charges against Batoon after affirming the complaint filed by one Yousuf Mohamad Saleh Abdulla.
Abdulla stated that Batoon, from the period of February 2006 to January 2012, received a total of 1,470,000 United Arab Emirates Dirhams (P28 million) for purchasing properties to be registered by the name of the respondent wherein the "beneficial interest is retained by the complainant."
A notarized acknowledgement was also made by the respondent on January 27, 2012, "making the receipt of money by the respondent a clear and unequivocal act on her part as a mere trustee of the complainant."
When Abdulla asked for the accounting of the money, he discovered that the respondent cannot furnish one because she only bought two properties yet sold the same to a third party.
The complainant then sought for legal service and a formal written demand was made for the respondent to return the said amount but the demand fell on "deaf ears."
"Pursuing the evidence on the record, it appears that the respondent can be held liable for the crime of estafa by misappropriation under Article 215 part 1 b thereof that the respondent received the money in trust for the complainant with purpose of purchasing properties but the said duty was not complied with and despite demands made by the complainant, the respondent failed to account for the money that she received in trust for the complainant," the resolution read. (KGL/Sunnex)