A WOMAN, who was earlier charged for the killing of a 31-year-old housewife last year, was charged anew after the live-in partner of the victim filed illegal recruitment charges against her and three other suspects.
Facing illegal recruitment charges before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 17 are Irene Matute Abadilla, Rhea Yamamoto, Alberto Pahayahay and Aries Abadilla.
The four were charged after they allegedly victimized Ariel Nirza Sumalinog, live-in partner of the murder victim identified as Roselyn Balo.
Irene is among those charged with murder for Balo's death.
Sumalinog, in his affidavit, said that sometime in July 2012, he received a text message from his cousin Irene asking him if he wanted to work in Japan.
The complainant told Irene that he has no passport and money but the respondent said Yamamoto could assist him in the processing of his travel documents.
The complainant contacted Yamamoto through text messages and the latter told him that he needs to deposit P11,000 in the bank account of Pahayahay to have a slot reserved.
Sumalinog informed Balo about the opportunity and the latter also invited one Renato Salada who also wanted to go abroad.
On August 30, 2012, Salada and Sumalinog deposited P20,000 to the account of Pahayahay and informed Yamamoto who advised them to procure the necessary documents for their travel.
After acquiring the documents, Sumalinog and Salada submitted the papers to Aries and they were also told by Yamamoto that it will take three months before they could go to Japan, which did not happen.
When they contacted Yamamoto, the latter kept on postponing their trip until she decided to return the money to the victims. Sumalinog, however, said Yamamoto only returned a total of P15,000.
Sumalinog then learned that several complaints of illegal recruitment against Yamamoto and Irene were already brought up to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Davao.
His live-in partner also communicated with a certain Marilou Mabera who told her that Irene was allegedly behind the illegal activity and she just paid Yamamoto to be part of the illegal recruitment syndicate.
Balo then tagged the suspects in the social networking site Facebook and posted their illegal activities.
The complainant also stated the events that led to the murder of his live-in partner.
Sumalinog said that after he discovered the modus operandi of Irene, he went to her residence at Deca Homes in Mintal on August 23, 2013 where he met Irene's bodyguard Jimmy Lacadon who was one of the respondents in the murder case of Balo.
Lacadon allegedly volunteered to take Sumalinog home after he visited his cousin. But he was surprised that on the following day, Lacadon along with an unidentified male suspect visited their house and asked about the whereabouts of Balo.
Sumalinog told Lacadon that his live-in partner was attending a girl scout camping of her daughter at the Matina Aplaya Elementary School.
Sumalinog asked Lacadon to take him to Irene yet he told the complainant that he and his companion will be attending to something.
Incidentally, Sumalinog, while he was at the place of Irene, received information about the murder of his live-in partner in the afternoon of the same day and saw Lacadon return to Irene's house looking anxious.
RTC Branch 17 Judge Evalyn Morales is yet to issue a warrant of arrest against the respondents.