‘Demafelis recruiter no longer in CIDG custody’

The alleged recruiter of Joanna Demafelis is no longer in the custody of the police, an official said yesterday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Agnes Tuballes left the office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame at past noon last Thursday.

“She left after the news briefing with media representatives,” the source said in a phone interview.

The source has no information on Tuballes’ whereabouts.

Tuballes went to the CIDG office at 3:20 p.m. last Tuesday after she was mentioned as Demafelis’ recruiter.

According to the source, Tuballes just wanted to give her side after Demafelis’ family pointed to her as the recruiter of the slain overseas Filipino worker.

“We have no legal basis to detain her. There are no cases against her,” the official said.

CIDG chief Director Roel Obusan said during the news briefing that they are not considering Tuballes as a suspect in the case.

The source said the CIDG is ready to provide security to Tuballes if she so requests.

Tuballes said she is being bullied in social media after her photograph was shown by GMA Network to the public. She added that even her two children are also now victims of bullying at school.

Demafelis was found dead and her body stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait.

Yesterday, officers of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Global E-Human Resources Inc. said they were unable to monitor the condition of Demafelis in Kuwait after the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) stripped them of their license in 2014.

Lawyer Jude Marfil, who represents Mt. Carmel Global assistant manager Mary Gay Abrantes, appeared at the National Bureau of Investigation before NBI-National Capital Region director Cesar Bacani to explain the agency’s side regarding the Demafelis case.

Marfil emphasized that the company was already closed several months after Demafelis flew to Kuwait, claiming that the former officers’ hands were practically tied.

“If the rules were to be followed, the POEA and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration should shoulder the responsibility of monitoring the workers if a recruitment agency was stripped of its license especially because the recruitment of Demafelis went through the legal process,” he said.

Marfil said nobody knows what happened to Demafelis after she finished her two-year contract, how she ended up with another employer, and why she did not communicate with OWWA.

Adrian Briones, former president of the agency, was also present at the NBI and informed Bacani that he had divested his interest from the company to the family of Abrantes in 2012.

But Bacani said all documents pertaining to Mt. Carmel Global still carried the name of Briones until it was closed.

Bacani said the NBI is going to study the affidavits of Briones and Abrantes if there is probable cause to file cases against them.

The NBI is also set to invite several officers of the agency “until everything becomes clear and we determine the persons who are liable,” Bacani said. –