Republic of the Philippines

Department of Justice
OFFICE OF THE CITY PROSECUTOR
Binangonan, Rizal

________________,
represented by
_____________,
Complainant,

-versus- I.S. No. _______________

For: Qualified Theft
________________________,

Respondent.
x ----------------------------------------------------x

COMPLAINT-AFFIDAVIT

I, ____________, of legal age, Filipino and with office address

at ____________, after having been duly sworn in accordance with
law, do hereby depose and state that:

1. I am the ____________ and the Authorized

Representative of __________, a Corporation duly organized and
existing under the law of the
Philippines, with principal business address at _______________. -

2. Respondent _________, (“Esguerra” for brevity) is of

legal age, Filipino, and with residence at __________, where she
may be served with the subpoena and other processes of this
Honorable Office. She is the former cashier and currently the branch
manager of _________, Binangonan branch.

3. Respondent ________________. (“__” for brevity), is of

legal age, Filipino, and with residence at ______________ where he
may be served with the subpoena and other processes of this
Honorable Office. He is an external collector of Robinsons Bank
employed by Work with US.

4. Respondent __________ (“_________” for brevity), is of

legal age, Filipino, and with residence at _______________ where he

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may be served with the subpoena and other processes of this
Honorable Office.

Respondents should be held criminally liable

for Qualified Theft under Article 310 in relation
to Article 308 of the Revised Penal Code.

5. Respondents are criminally liable for Qualified Theft

under Article 310
of the Revised Penal Code, in relation to Article 308, for taking, with
intent to gain, with grave abuse of confidence and without the
consent of ___, various sums of money from Complainant in the total
amount of PESOS: SIX HUNDRED THIRTYEIGHT THOUSAND
NINE HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT AND 94/100 (Php638,968.94).

Articles 308 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code

states thus:

“Article 308. Who are liable for theft. - Theft is

committed by any person who, with intent to gain but
without violence against or intimidation of persons nor
force upon things, shall take personal property of
another without the latter's consent.” (Emphasis
supplied)

“Article 310. Qualified Theft. — The crime of theft

shall be punished by the penalties next higher in
degree than those respectively specified in the
next preceding article, if committed by a domestic
servant, or with grave abuse of confidence, or if
the property stolen is large cattle or consists of
coconuts, or fish taken from a fishpond or fishery,
or if the property is taken on the occasion of fire,
earthquake, typhoon, volcanic eruption, or any
other calamity, vehicular accident or civil
disturbance.” (Emphasis supplied)

6. Respondents _______ should be charged with the crime

of Qualified Theft committed as follows:

“.”

Respondents unlawfully took substantial

amounts of money from Complainant ____
and used it for their personal benefit.

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 7. On ___________, ____ entered into a Dealership
Arrangement Agreement with ___ wherein __ Bank will finance the
motorcycle loans of the motorcycle buyers of ___ Bikes. On the other
hand, ____ agreed to collect and remit the monthly amortizations of
the clients/borrowers on behalf of ____ through payments in any of
its branches or through field collectors. ____ further agreed to be
liable to ____ for any loss or breach of its contractual obligations and
warranties, including non-remittance, pursuant to the Agreement. A
copy of the Dealership Arrangement Agreement dated ________is
attached hereto as Annex “C” and made an integral part hereof.

8. On March 5, 2015, Respondent ____ was initially hired by

____as cashier of its Binangonan Branch and she occupied said
position until April 3, 2018.

It was the duty of Respondent as cashier, among others, to receive

cash and check deposits and loan payments, cash checks and
process withdrawals. After receiving the monthly amortization
payments from the clients, she encodes the payment details in ____
system. The branch manager then verifies the payment details
encoded by the cashier in the system. A copy of the Job Description
of Respondent ___ is attached hereto as Annex “D” and made an
integral part hereof.

9. On July 16, 2018, Respondent ____ was promoted to

Manager but she still continued to perform cashier/teller duties.

10. Respondent ___ was initially hired by ___ as Marketing

Assistant on January 11, 2016 and was later hired by ___ as external
field collector and credit investigator on October 27, 2017.
Respondent ___ was also hired by ___ as external collector/credit
investigator on April 10, 2017. It was their duty as field collectors to
follow up, collect and receive cash payments from clients/borrowers
of ___. Upon receipt of the payments from the clients, they issue a
receipt to the client indicating the date of payment and the month the
amortization is applied to. They then encode the payment transaction
details to the ___ system. Thereafter, they turn over the cash
payments to the cashier of ___, herein Respondent ___. The cashier
in turn verifies the amount she receives from the collectors with the
information encoded by the collectors in the ____ system. Copies of
the Job Descriptions of Respondent ___ are attached hereto as
Annexes “E” and “F” and made integral parts hereof.

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 11. On August 11, 2018, ___, Cashier of ___, Binangonan
branch, and ____, Receptionist of ___, Binangonan branch, went to
the main office of ____ in Cubao, Quezon City and reported to ___
the alleged misappropriation of cash collections, forgeries of agent’s
signature and connivance among Respondents ___ then immediately
reported the matter to me.

12. Based on the report of Ms. __, I went to ___ Binangonan

Branch on August 13, 2018 together with the Internal Audit Group of
___ composed of __ to conduct a surprise audit checking.

13. The surprise audit revealed a partial finding of missing

cash funds and collections in the total amount of Six Hundred Thirty-
Eight Thousand Nine Hundred Sixty-Eight Pesos and 94/100
(Php638,968.94). A copy of the Partial Report dated
September 20, 2018 is hereto attached and made integral part hereof
as Annex “G”.
Below is a table of the partial findings which shows the amounts
taken/unremitted by Respondents:

13.1. Upon examination of the receipts and the recorded

transactions in __, there were one hundred nine
(109) receipts representing clients’ monthly
amortization payments in the total amount of
Php570,130.00 that were not reported and
unremitted by Respondent __. It was also revealed
that there were sixteen (16) unremitted monthly
amortizations in the total amount of Php61,156.00.
A copy of the M___ record is hereto attached and
made integral part hereof as Annex “H”.

13.1.1. Seventy (70) unreported receipts

representing the total amount of
Php399,907.00 were prepared and signed by
Respondent ___. Copies of the Receipts are
hereto attached and made integral parts
hereof as Annexes “I” to “I-69”.
13.1.2. Thirty-four (34) unreported receipts
representing the total amount of
Php147,376.00 were prepared and signed by
___. Copies of the Receipts are hereto
attached and made integral parts hereof as
Annexes “J” to “J-33”.

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 13.1.3. Two (2) Receipts representing the total
amount of
Php10,612.00 were prepared and signed by
Respondent __. Copies of the Receipts are
hereto attached and made integral parts
hereof as Annexes “K” to “K-1”.
13.1.4. Two (2) Receipts representing the total
amount of Php9,799.00 were prepared and
signed by Respondent ___. Copies of the
Receipts are hereto attached and made
integral parts hereof as Annexes “L” to “L-1”.
13.1.5. One (1) Receipt representing the total
amount of Php2,436.00 was prepared and
signed by Respondent ________. A copy of
the Receipt is hereto attached and made
integral part hereof as Annex “M”.
13.1.6. Ms. ___, encoded in ___, under the
authorization andinstruction of Respondent
___, a set of receipts numbered 3019 to 3034
representing payments in the total amount of
Php61,156.00. However, the payments were
not remitted to the Bank. Copies of the
Receipts No. 3019 to 3034 are hereto
attached and made integral parts hereof as
Annexes “N” to “N-15”.
13.2. 7.Upon field verification with the clients’ copies of
the receipts, Receipts No. 3029 to 3034 which
were about to be encoded in Netsuite on August
13, 2018 were dated August 11, 2018, suggesting
that cash were actually received on that date.
Copies of the clients copy of the receipts are hereto
attached and made integral part hereof as Annexes
“O” to “O-5”.

13.3. There was a shortage on petty cash fund computed

as follows:
Cash on hand 0.00
Current expenses/vouchers 2,277.06
Check on hand c/o treasury dept.
Total PCF expenses
Less: PCF 10,000.00 Variance (Shortage):
5,682.94

A copy of the Petty Cash Fund Breakdown is hereto

attached and made integral part hereof as Annex
“P”.

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 13.4. Checks amounting to Php920.00 and Php3,068.50
were
released to Respondent ___ last August 2, 2018
representing petty cash replenishment and are
encashed on the same day. However, the proceeds
of the checks were not remitted. There was no
cash counted and expenses/vouchers only
amounted to Php2,277.06. Copies of the logbook
and Statement of Account are hereto attached and
made integral parts hereof as Annexes “Q” and “R”.
13.5. A check was released to Respondent ___ for
payment to Accredited Service Provider (ASP) in
the amount of Php2,000.00. However, there was no
receipt shown to support that it was remitted. A
copy of the check is hereto attached and made
integral part hereof as Annex “S”.

14. On August 14, 2018, in coordination with ___, ___

conducted its own investigation. Respondent ___ were invited as
resource persons. During the investigation Respondent ___ denied
any knowledge and/or participation regarding the anomalies in ___
Binangonan. Copies of the Statements of Respondent ___ are hereto
attached and made integral parts hereof as Annexes “T” to “U”.

15. On August 15, 2018, the ___ representatives went to ___

main office in Cubao, Quezon City in order to conduct further
investigation. They were able to talk to ___ who has personal
knowledge on the scheme of Respondents in stealing from ___, to
wit:

15.1. When Respondents ___ collects the monthly

amortizations ofthe clients/borrowers, they only
indicate the date of payment on the client’s copy of
the receipts. No date is indicated on the branch
copy of the receipts.
15.2. They will then turnover only a portion of their
collections to thecashier as well as its
corresponding receipts. They make it appear that
only the amount turned over to the cashier was
collected by retaining the branch copies of the
receipts. Moreover, only the amount turned over to
the cashier is reported in ___ so that there will be
no inconsistencies with the amount reported in MC
Best and the amount turned over to the cashier.

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 15.3. Respondents used the funds they took for their
own personalbenefit like cigarettes and food.

15.4. Since they took a portion of the collection, there are

clientswhose loan account became past due.
Those clients had complained to ___. The
collectors, Respondents __, acting in conspiracy
with the manager, Respondent __, misrepresented
to the clients that their payments were only
misposted and it will be corrected.
15.5. In order to conceal their illegal acts, the
Respondents neverreported the complaints to ___.
They also used the current or subsequent day
collections to cover up the monthly amortizations
that they took on the previous day. They used the
undated receipts to make it appear that the
collections were made on the date indicated on
said receipts.

16. Respondent ___ admitted that she took and used for her
personal benefit the monthly amortization payments of the clients
using the same scheme used by Respondents ___. She stated that
after receiving the monthly amortization payments from the clients,
she will encode into the system only a portion of the day’s collection.
She also said that she also issued to the clients dated receipts but
she did not indicate the date on the branch copy of the receipts which
she concealed in order to cover up the amounts that she took
(Paragraph 3 of Respondent ___’s Statement). A copy of the
Statement of Respondent __ dated August 15, 2018 is hereto
attached and made integral part hereof as Annex “V”.

17. Respondent __ also admitted that she acted in conspiracy

with the collectors, Respondents ___ to steal the payments due to
___ and to conceal their illegal acts. They will tell the complaining
clients that their payments were only misposted and that they will
correct the same. She will not report the incident to her superiors and
in order to further conceal the money that she stole, she will use the
current or subsequent day collections to cover up the monthly
amortizations that she took on the previous days. She also stated
that Respondents ___ were remitting receipts without the
corresponding cash payments from the clients/borrowers and that
she does not report the illegal acts of Respondents ___ to her
superiors and to ___. (Paragraph 2 and 3 of Respondent __
Statement)

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 18. After the investigation, Respondent _a promised to pay
the stolen monthly amortizations but she has not given any payment
up to this date. Moreover, Respondent ___ cannot be located and
contacted by ___s since August 2018.

Respondents are criminally liable for Qualified

Theft under Article 310 of the Revised Penal
Code in relation to Article 308.

19. The Supreme Court, in the case of People vs. Puig and
Porras (G.R. Nos. 173654-765, August 28, 2008) discussed the
elements of the crime of Qualified Theft thus:

“Qualified Theft, as defined and punished under

Article 310 of the Revised Penal Code, is
committed as follows, viz:

ART. 310. Qualified Theft. – The crime of theft

shall be punished by the penalties next higher by
two degrees than those respectively specified in
the next preceding article, if committed by a
domestic servant, or with grave abuse of
confidence, or if the property stolen is motor
vehicle, mail matter or large cattle or consists of
coconuts taken from the premises of a plantation,
fish taken from a fishpond or fishery or if property
is taken on the occasion of fire, earthquake,
typhoon, volcanic eruption, or any other calamity,
vehicular accident or civil disturbance. (Emphasis
supplied.)

Theft, as defined in Article 308 of the Revised

Penal Code, requires the physical taking of
another’s property without violence or intimidation
against persons or force upon things.
The elements of the crime under this Article are:
1.Intent to gain;
2.Unlawful taking;
3.Personal property belonging to another;
4.Absence of violence or intimidation against
persons or forceupon things.

To fall under the crime of Qualified Theft, the

following elements must concur: 1. Taking of
personal property;

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 2.That the said property belongs to another;
3.That the said taking be done with intent to gain;
4.That it be done without the owner’s consent;
5.That it be accomplished without the use of
violence orintimidation against persons, nor of
force upon things;
6.That it be done with grave abuse of confidence.”
(Emphasis supplied)

20. All of the above elements of Qualified Theft are present in

this case. Hence, Respondents should be held criminally liable for
Qualified Theft.

20.1. Respondents ___ took the total amount of

(Php638,968.94) from the Complainant by collecting the
payments of the clients and not reporting the same to __.

20.2. Complainant is liable to ___ for the funds that it

agreed to collectfrom the borrowers.

20.3. The taking of the subject funds was with intent to

gain which wasevident from the fact that Respondents took and
used the collections for their own personal benefit.

20.3.1. Respondents __ used the money they

took from theComplainant to buy cigarettes
and food. Paragraph 3 of ___ Statement
states, to wit:

“.”

20.3.2. Respondent __ admitted that she used

thecollections/money she took to pay her
debts. Paragraph 1 of Respondent __
Statement states, to wit:

“”

20.3.3. Respondents also used the

collections/money theytook from the
Complainant to treat the staffs of
___Binangonan to lunch on several
occasions
according to __. (Paragraph 1 of Ms. _)

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 21.4. The taking was done without the consent of the
Complainant __.Respondents concealed their illegal activities
by retaining the branch copy of the receipts, failing to reporting
the monthly amortization payments of the borrowers into the
____’ systems and not reporting the borrowers’ complaints to
their superiors.

21.5. The taking was accomplished without violence or

intimidationagainst person or force upon things.

21.6. The taking was done with grave abuse of

confidence. In the caseof People vs. Puig and Porras, the
Supreme Court reiterated that bank employees who come into
possession of the money deposited in therein enjoy the
confidence reposed in them by the bank, to wit:

“It is beyond doubt that tellers, Cashiers,

Bookkeepers and other employees of a Bank who
come into possession of the monies deposited
therein enjoy the confidence reposed in them by
their employer. Banks, on the other hand, where
monies are deposited, are considered the owners
thereof. This is very clear not only from the
express provisions of the law, but from established
jurisprudence. The relationship between banks
and depositors has been held to be that of creditor
and debtor. Articles 1953 and 1980 of the New
Civil Code, as appropriately pointed out by
petitioner, provide as follows:

Article 1953. A person who receives a loan of

money or any other fungible thing acquires the
ownership thereof, and is bound to pay to the
creditor an equal amount of the same kind and
quality.

Article 1980. Fixed, savings, and current deposits

of money in banks and similar institutions shall be
governed by the provisions concerning loan.

In a long line of cases involving Qualified Theft,

this Court has firmly established the nature of
possession by the Bank of the money deposits
therein, and the duties being performed by its
employees who have custody of the money or
have come into possession of it. The Court has

10
consistently considered the allegations in the
Information that such employees acted with grave
abuse of confidence, to the damage and prejudice
of the Bank, without particularly referring to it as
owner of the money deposits, as sufficient to make
out a case of Qualified Theft.
For a graphic illustration, we cite Roque v. People
(444 SCRA 98, 100-101), where the accused teller
was convicted for Qualified Theft based on this
Information:

That on or about the 16th day of November, 1989,

in the municipality of Floridablanca, province of
Pampanga, Philippines and within the jurisdiction
of his Honorable Court, the above-named accused
ASUNCION GALANG ROQUE, being then
employed as teller of the Basa Air Base Savings
and Loan Association Inc. (BABSLA) with office
address at Basa Air Base, Floridablanca,
Pampanga, and as such was authorized and
reposed with the responsibility to receive and
collect capital contributions from its
member/contributors of said corporation, and
having collected and received in her capacity as
teller of the BABSLA the sum of TEN THOUSAND
PESOS (P10,000.00), said accused, with intent of
gain, with grave abuse of confidence and without
the knowledge and consent of said corporation,
did then and there willfully, unlawfully and
feloniously take, steal and carry away the amount
of P10,000.00, Philippine currency, by making it
appear that a certain depositor by the name of
Antonio Salazar withdrew from his Savings
Account No. 1359, when in truth and in fact said
Antonio Salazar did not withdr[a]w the said amount
of P10,000.00 to the damage and prejudice of
BABSLA in the total amount of P10,000.00,
Philippine currency.

In convicting the therein appellant, the Court held

that: [S]ince the teller occupies a position of
confidence, and the bank places money in the
teller’s possession due to the confidence reposed
on the teller, the felony of qualified theft would be
committed (Id. at 119).

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Also in People v. Sison (379 Phil. 363, 366-367),
the Branch Operations Officer was convicted of the
crime of Qualified Theft based on the Information
as herein cited:

That in or about and during the period compressed

between January 24, 1992 and February 13, 1992,
both dates inclusive, in the City of Manila,
Philippines, the said accused did then and there
wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously, with intent of
gain and without the knowledge and consent of the
owner thereof, take, steal and carry away the
following, to wit:

Cash money amounting to P6,000,000.00 in

different denominations belonging to the
PHILIPPINE COMMERCIAL INTERNATIONAL
BANK (PCIBank for brevity), Luneta Branch,
Manila represented by its Branch Manager,
HELEN U. FARGAS, to the damage and prejudice
of the said owner in the aforesaid amount of
P6,000,000.00, Philippine Currency.

That in the commission of the said offense, herein

accused acted with grave abuse of confidence and
unfaithfulness, he being the Branch Operation
Officer of the said complainant and as such he had
free access to the place where the said amount of
money was kept.

The judgment of conviction elaborated thus:

The crime perpetuated by appellant against his

employer, the Philippine Commercial and Industrial
Bank (PCIB), is Qualified Theft. Appellant could
not have committed the crime had he not been
holding the position of Luneta Branch Operation
Officer which gave him not only sole access to the
bank vault xxx. The management of the PCIB
reposed its trust and confidence in the appellant
as its Luneta Branch Operation Officer, and it was
this trust and confidence which he exploited to
enrich himself to the damage and prejudice of
PCIB x x x (Id. at 385).

From another end, People v. Locson ( 57 Phil. 325),

in addition to People v. Sison, described the nature

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 of possession by the Bank. The money in this case
was in the possession of the defendant as
receiving teller of the bank, and the possession of
the defendant was the possession of the Bank.
The Court held therein that when the defendant,
with grave abuse of confidence, removed the
money and appropriated it to his own use without
the consent of the Bank, there was taking as
contemplated in the crime of Qualified Theft (Id.)
Conspicuously, in all of the foregoing cases, where
the Informations merely alleged the positions of
the respondents; that the crime was committed
with grave abuse of confidence, with intent to gain
and without the knowledge and consent of the
Bank, without necessarily stating the phrase being
assiduously insisted upon by respondents, "of a
relation by reason of dependence, guardianship or
vigilance, between the respondents and the
offended party that has created a high degree of
confidence between them, which respondents
abused," (Rollo, p. 158) and without employing the
word "owner" in lieu of the "Bank" were considered
to have satisfied the test of sufficiency of
allegations.

As regards the respondents who were employed

as Cashier and Bookkeeper of the Bank in this
case, there is even no reason to quibble on the
allegation in the Informations that they acted with
grave abuse of confidence. In fact, the Information
which alleged grave abuse of confidence by
accused herein is even more precise, as this is
exactly the requirement of the law in qualifying the
crime of Theft.

In summary, the Bank acquires ownership of the

money deposited by its clients; and the employees
of the Bank, who are entrusted with the
possession of money of the Bank due to the
confidence reposed in them, occupy positions of
confidence. The Informations, therefore,
sufficiently allege all the essential elements
constituting the crime of Qualified Theft.”
(Emphasis supplied)

21. I have executed this complaint-affidavit to attest to the truth

of the foregoing and to initiate a complaint against Respondent, for

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and on behalf of ___, for Qualified Theft, and/or such other offenses
in the Revised Penal Code which this Honorable Office may deem
appropriate after the conduct of Preliminary
Investigation.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NAUGHT.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I sign hereunder on this

______________________ at ______________ City.

____
Affiant / Authorized Representative
SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN before me on this
______________________ at ______________ City. I hereby certify
that I have personally examined the complaint and that I am
convinced that the foregoing is her true and voluntary act and deed.

ADMINISTERING PROSECUTOR

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