8 Cagayan de Oro School Officials to be Charged with Illegal Recruitment and Estafa

03 Jun 8 Cagayan de Oro School Officials to be Charged with Illegal Recruitment and Estafa

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Vabez Vanessa Marbebe Tan

On August 17, 2015, 6 complainants namely Christopher Sanchez, John Rey Colance, Ronald Edquilag, Clint Cadungol, Ulysses Cabanog and Renaldo Moreno filed illegal recruitment and large-scale estafa cases against officials from a Cagayan de Oro school identified as the Philippine School of Science and Technology (PSST). The school is a technical-vocational school in this city. The cases were initially dismissed by City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag due to lack of merit last March 28 but the complainants filed a motion for reconsideration which then the court then transferred the cases to Regional State Prosecutor Jaime Umpa. And presently, the cases are set to proceed.

The cases were filed against 8 school officials of the said school namely Amy Bendisula, Rubelyn Llovia, Pamela Verda, Krista Anna Bendisula, Noel Bendisula, Agnes Bendisula and Louie Bendisual.

The complainants said that they were offered a guaranteed job placement in Japan by Amy Bendisula who is the school director and corporate treasurer once they enroll in their Food Processing course. Those who will pay their tuition fees in full and on time will be prioritized for the deployment. Also, the complainants were promised with a P50,000 monthly salary to be given to them in Manila before their deployment claimable when their 3-year contract ends.

For the complainants processing, authentication, and translation of their employment documents, they were asked to pay P2,225 for it by Noel Bendisula, the school’s vice president and vice chairman of the Board of Trustees.

According to Christopher Sanchez, one of the complainants, they were convinced to enroll in the said school for they were promised with in-house overseas placement. He also said that the OWWA paid an amount of P14,500 in tuition for a Bartending program which he then received a Bartending diploma, but actually, he studied Food Processing. Quoting him, “That alone, the promise of overseas placement, and getting a different diploma for a course you didn’t take is deception.”

“We were promised that their deployment for Japan will be in December 2014. Until now, nothing has happened,” Sanchez finally added.

To answer the allegations, legal representative of PSST Jerome Jarales said in a news conference on May 31 that the school denies the allegations and that the school’s function was just train the students. He mentioned the name of Jessie Cunahap who is said to be the head of Jespher Travel Tours and Visa Consultancy, who happened to be the recruiter of the students. And according to him, a total of P2.217 million pesos was collected by Cunahan from the school’s 217 students. with this, Jarales said that PSST can’t be blamed for dealing with the alleged recruiter.

“It is not the function of the school to verify the authenticity of Cunahap or Jespher Travel Tours and Visa Consultancy, because the school is not in the business of recruitment,” Jarales said.

PSST has already filed 22 criminal cases against Cunahap and will be filing more in the coming days.