2 who duped 23 on fake jobs nabbed

CEBU CITY—Four alleged illegal recruiters were arrested for duping 23 persons, including nurses at a military hospital, a school principal and a wife of a police officer, into paying a total of P1.2 million in fees for nonexistent jobs in London.

Eve Condevillamar, 36; her sister Ivy De Dios, 38; their mother Emma Condevillamar, 59; and friend Gemma Asada, 46, were detained to face charges of illegal recruitment.

Senior Insp. Bonifacio Arriesgado, chief of police in Carmen town, said Emma and Eve were arrested on Thursday at Eve’s home in Tuburan town while they were celebrating the birthday of Eve’s son.

The two suspects were turned over to the Carmen Police Station on Friday.

Ivy and Asada went to the police station but were held, too.

Ivy denied that she was part of the scam, saying she, too, was a victim since she was among those recruited by Eve to work in London.

Eve, she said, worked in London as a nanny but went back to the Philippines on Aug. 29 to get the documents of the applicants.

The four were accused of duping 23 persons but only 12 were interested in pursuing charges against the suspects, said Arriesgado.

The victims included nurses from a military hospital, a school principal and other professionals who were recruited to work as nurses, caregivers, nannies, encoders and programmers with salaries ranging from £2,000, £2,500 and £3,400 a month.

One of them was Marcial Sanchez, 52, of Carmen, who quit his job as a principal after Asada offered him a job in London in Danao City on Aug. 1.

“I sold five of my pigs. My children were all mad at me,” said Sanchez.