My Brother-In-Law Filed a estafa case against me-I need legal advises

my brother-in-law and i put up a business somewhere July of last year. It's a Tarpaulin Printing Business. thigs are just doing fine during the few months of operations. I handled the whole operations while he handles the capitalization. He invested roughly 800k for the business and me being an industrial partner invested my knowledge on the business not to mention the my blood and sweat to run the very complicated part of operation.

last December we have had several arguments on the processes he wanted to implement in the operation specially the inventory and the business side. But i explained to him everything. last February he sent few of his men from his other business to help us out in the production. and much to my surprised those people were sent pala to do the spy thing! During those days also he sent another girl employee to do the job order and issuance of receipts. pero pala nagsspy din. bakit namin nalaman? The men they sent previously admitted that they were being sent to spy on us. after that naging marahas yung mga move nila when we tried to confront Him with this issue. They don't listen to our explanation and they questioned us and even accused us that me and my wife stole money from the company. Nxt thing they did was they did'nt let us go to the office. they remove all our access to the office. Good thing is we managed to get all the important documents we needed to prove their accusations wrong.

Thigs get worst as days passes by. Last March 5, 2010 9 am hinarang nila kami while riding our motorcycle going to our son's school. minura mura kami sa harap ng maraming tao, sinabihang magnanakaw and pinagtankaan na pagkatapos ng gulo eh "mawawala ako!" patatahimikin ako..so i made a complaint to the barangay and i went to province para magpalamig. Just earlier we receive a complaint coming from them that they just file a estafa case against me.

Sorry for the telenovela write up...I just wanted to explain everything. I don't have money to pay for lawyers to help. I'm seeking for legal advises...pls help po.

Thank you

If an estafa case has already been filed with the Office of the Prosecutor, your priority is to defend yourself from such criminal charge. The prosecutor will only need prima facie evidence in order to elevate the case to court. If you receive notice from the Office of the Prosecutor, do not ignore. You will have the opportunity to file your Counter-Affidavit. If you cannot hire a lawyer, at least ask one to prepare your Counter-Affidavit.

Based on your story, you can also file criminal case/s against your brother in law. You can charge him with "Oral Defamation" and "Threat". Since you already referred the matter to the Barangay, secure a Certificate to File Action from the said Barangay. Then proceed to the Office of the Prosecutor where the incident happened for the filing of the criminal charges for Oral Defamation and Threat. Ask a lawyer to prepare your Affidavit-Complaint and you will simply affirm this before the prosecutor. In the case of Oral Defamation, you need at least 1 witness who witnessed the defamatory act and he will also execute an Affidavit.

Do not waste time because there is a prescriptive period within which to file the criminal action. For example, if the prosecutor determines that it is only Simple Slander (Oral Defamation), you only have 2 months from the date of the criminal act within which to institute criminal charges. If it is Grave Slander (Oral Defamation), you have 6 months.

It is also prudent if you will report prior and future incidents of threat to the police. You can never be sure what he is capable of.

Thank you for taking time reading my case, as of the moment the estafa case against me is still in the barangay level. we are scheduled to attend the hearing on Friday.

One thing po he denied that we are partners in the business instead they just called us "tagapamahala" i admit we don't have formal papers for this because i just trusted him. According to verbal agreement before we started the business that i will get 30% share. i received 60k as devedend last December but that was the first and only devedend i got kasi po the neroroll pa po namin yung money and our report will prove this. Ano po kaya laban ko dun since he's denying everything. I don't even have any salary for seven months kasi katwiran nya po nagnenegosyo kami. Can i still prove this?

Ano po yung penalties nya dun sa oral defamation and threat? when the incedent happen po my wife is with me and she was able to call my other brother-in-law to listen to the whole incedent. Pwede po ba natin maconsider na witness yung brother in law ko po.

Thank you for enlightening me! i appreciate hope you can still answer those clarifications...

thank you ng marami.