THE owner of Sarsalejo Security Agency was found guilty of estafa by the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 1 of Mandaue City.
This was due to the non-remittance of Social Security System (SSS) contributions of one of the agency’s security personnel as mandated by law.
Arne Sarsalejo was convicted of estafa (swindling) by Judge Jennifer Pepito-Maniwang under Article 315, paragraph 1(b) of the Revised Penal Code for her agency’s failure to pay the SSS contribution of her employee, Rodel Paburada, despite deducting it from his monthly salary.
Paburada reportedly appealed to the agency several times to remit his SSS contribution, but they failed to do so.
Consequently, Paburada filed a case against the Sarsalejos after discovering from SSS records that they had not remitted his contributions from March to August 2019, November to December 2020, January 2021, April 2021, October 2021, March 2022 and April 2022, amounting to a total of P4,525.
The court emphasized that an employer has an obligation to remit SSS contributions within the timeframe stipulated by law.
According to the Republic Act (RA) 11199, or the Social Security Act of 2018, failure to pay SSS contributions within 30 days after it is deducted from an employee’s salary is considered “misappropriation” and indicates an intent to defraud.
Based on the evidence presented, although Paburada’s salary was deducted for his SSS contribution, it was not remitted within 30 days but only on Oct. 19, 2022.
“In failing to remit the contributions despite deducting the same from the salary, the employer is presumed to have misappropriated the sum deducted from the employee to the damage and prejudice of the latter. There being a presumption of misappropriation, the defense has the burden of presenting evidence to overcome such presumption, this it failed to do with respect to Arne Sarsalejo,” Judge Maniwang stated in her Jan. 9, 2025 decision.
The MTCC Branch 1 decision comes after a similar decision on Nov. 11, 2024, by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 84 of Mandaue City, which also found Arne and her husband Jonnifer guilty of violating Section 19(a) in relation to Section 28(e) of RA 11199.
The Sarsalejo family, through their lawyer Vincent Roel Tabuñag, stated that they will appeal the RTC decision and are confident that it will be dismissed, just like the 20 similar cases they faced in the Mandaue City court filed by their former security guards.
They were reportedly only fined in their case at RTC Branch 84 as a penalty. / AYB