Maid gets up to 2 years for stealing employer’s phone, cash
By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:41:00 09/23/2008
Filed Under: Robbery, theft,Crime, Law & Justice
MANILA, Philippines—A Las Piñas City court has convicted a househelp of theft for allegedly stealing her employer’s cell phone although she insisted that she only borrowed the cell phone for a few hours.
In an eight-page decision, Judge Raul Villanueva of Regional Trial Court Branch 255 sentenced Lourdes Tolentino to six months up to two years imprisonment for the crime of simple theft.
Tolentino was originally charged with qualified theft by her employer, Dorothy Sanz.
In his decision, Villanueva gave weight to Sanz's testimony that her househelp stole her Nokia 6300 and her cash on December 3, 2007, as Sanz was taking a bath.
The judge pointed out that the denial by the accused “could not be taken as gospel truth” and that Tolentino was unable to present other witnesses to support her claim.
Court records showed that on the morning of December 3, 2007, Sanz was taking a bath and found out later that her cell phone worth P11,500 and P4,000 from her wallet were missing.
She told the court that at the time of the theft, she was alone in the house with Tolentino. According to Sanz, Tolentino left the house just as Sanz discovered the theft. Sanz claimed she tried to run after her househelp but was unable to catch up.
Sanz then got in touch with a friend identified as a certain “Elsie” who originally referred Tolentino to Sanz. Tolentino allegedly texted Elsie that she would leave the cellphone at a church in the village of Merville, Parañaque City.
But when Sanz came to the church, the cell phone was nowhere to be found, prompting the complainant to report the theft to Merville’s village officials.
Police later apprehended Tolentino while she was loitering near the church and recovered Sanz’s cellphone and P2,160 from her.
In her defense, Tolentino claimed that she worked for Sanz up to the day of the theft, and that she only borrowed her employer's cellphone and asked for a cash advance of P4,000 so she could go home to Silang, Cavite.
She insisted that she returned the two items after discovering that she was being accused of theft.
The Las Piñas City court convicted Tolentino for simple theft, saying it could not establish if the domestic helper gravely abused the confidence of her employer, an act that would constitute qualified theft.
It, nevertheless, gave credence to Sanz’s testimony in so far as establishing the crime of simple theft was concerned.
“The court finds the employer a credible witness. Indeed, her testimony alone is more than enough to establish the circumstances surrounding the commission by the accused of the crime,” Vilanueva added.
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