‘We’re also victims,’ say invest scam employees

LUCENA CITY—A group of suspects in the discredited multimillion peso investment scheme here, that faces charges of syndicated estafa and economic sabotage, came out in the open to proclaim their innocence.

“We’re not the culprits. We’re also victims,” said Ricmar Almajar, spokesperson of 12 former account executives of Grand

Alliance of Business Leaders Association Inc. (Gabai).

Almajar and Evangeline Mancao, Evangeline Lampas, Jimwell Medrano, Arnel Guevarra, Noime Corpuz, Myla Saberdo, all former Gabai account executives, and Malou Ortanez, Nancy Ortanez and Chinie Correa, volunteer tellers, met with Inquirer in an exclusive interview on Monday.

The group was accompanied by its lawyer, Maria Aurora Sore Romano, from a Manila-based law firm, who said her clients were not part of the investment scheme.

She said her clients and their families were also duped and unable to recover their investments, estimated at P10 million.

Romano said some of her clients supplied Gabai with products and are now unpaid.

“Clearly, they are also victims of this scam,” said Romano.

She said her clients had no employee-employer relationship with Gabai as they did not receive regular salaries or

allowances for their services.

Almajar said they were deemed account executives

“only in name.”

Lucena police had filed estafa and economic sabotage cases against Romano’s clients and six others—Luzardo Lucido, Gabai chair; Gerald Joseph Murillo, account manager and his wife Jenelee, logistics officer; and Camille Bautista, technical sales officer; Jennifer Abes, account executive and husband Dennis, Gabai organizer.

Lucido, the Murillo couple, the Abes couple and Bautista have been in hiding since November.

Romano said her clients would file a case of syndicated estafa against Lucido, the Murillo couple, Bautista and Nilo Magsino, Gabai internal auditor.

Some of Almajar’s colleagues narrated how they were harassed and even received death threats from scam victims due to their association with Gabai’s operations.

One of them said some of her neighbors, who were also scam victims, threatened them with bodily harm, while a colleague narrated how they watched helplessly as furious victims ransacked their homes.

Another said some of his relatives despised him while one said he felt sorry for his son, an overseas Filipino worker, who also lost his earnings to the scam.

Gabai’s discredited scheme promised a 40-percent weekly interest for investments, ranging from P350 to P35,000 a day. It attracted vendors, drivers, teachers, police, soldiers and government and private employees.