Jailed Housemaid because of budol budol modus operandi

Hi,

Need advice in behalf of an acquaintance who has a daughter currently in jail for qualified theft.

According to the accused(daughter), she received a call that her employer had an accident and needed to bring jewelries, etc to an instructed location and hand over to a person. 2 months palang sya sa Manila galing ng probinsya and presumably hindi alam ang modus na ito. To cut the story short, naibigay nya ang mga alahas.

Now, the employer filed a qualified theft case against her. the value of the properties lost is approx PH 600k.

Dahil walang pera and walang masyadong alam sa batas and kakilala ang pamilya nitong accused, hindi alam kung ano ang mga pwede nilang gawin. The accused has been in jail for abt a year and is represented by a PAO lawyer. Naka apat na hearing na sila pero hindi umaatted ang complainant.

Ang understanding ng mother is mailalabas lang ang anak nya if they pay the entire amount of PH 600,000. The mother tried contacting the employer pero ayaw makipag usap.

i hope you can help with e following questions:

1. Bailable po ba ang kaso? If so, magkano?
2. Is there a valid case against the accused?
3. What other advice can you give for this case?

Much appreciated!

Coordinate with the PAO lawyer. If the complainaint hasn't been appearing for the hearings, they could have the case provisionally dismissed for lack of interest to prosecute on the part of the complainaint.

The PAO should make the motion in court.

Hope this helps.

Thanks AttyZag for the quick reply!

Just in case po, bail becomes another option, tama po ba na Ph 24,000 or P40,000 ang possible na babayaran nila? Paano po ba ang process for the bail? I can sense na parang may connivance na nangyayari kasi hindi nagbibigay ng magandang advice si PAO and pinipilit na mag benta ng property ang magulang para ibayad as if its the only option.

THEFT QUALIFIED (Art. 310 in relation to Arts. 308 and 309)
If the value of the property stolen is P32,000.00 or over
Reclusion perpetua No Bail
Reclusion temporal P40,000.00
Prision Mayor P24,000.00

By the way, On the complainant not attending the hearings, ang sabi po ni PAO sa accused is nandyan naman ang lawyer nya so no need to attend. Bale walang other support ang accused other than the PAO kasi the family is poor; di kaya ng magulang na subaybayan ang kaso dito sa Manila.