Pangan said Respicio and her mother, Edna Mangulabnan, promised to help her go to Italy for cancer treatment if she would entertain the visa applicants.
Triple whammy Following her husband’s death last June in Saudi Arabia, amid her fighting the ‘Big C,’ Arlyn Pangan laments in an interview by Allan Hernandez her being accused of involvement in the alleged Alpha Assistenza scam. |
Share
The cancer-stricken aunt of Alpha Assistenza SRL executive Krizelle Respicio yesterday appealed to her niece, who is at the center of an alleged massive recruitment scam, to come out in the open.
Her voice breaking at times during an interview with DAILY TRIBUNE's Usapang OFW, Arlyn Pangan rued that Respicio had heartlessly dragged her name into the scandal.
Pangan said Respicio and her mother, Edna, her first cousin, promised to help her go to Italy for cancer treatment if she would "entertain" the visa applicants.
She was the one who brought two dozen applicants to a coffee shop to tell them of the denied visa applications of previous Alpha "clients."
The Italian Embassy in Manila denied Alpha Assistenza had a legal standing to deal with visa applications (see related story).
In a statement, Alpha Assistenza tagged Pangan and "runner" Socorro Velasquez as the alleged perpetrators of the scam. But Pangan and Velasquez told this paper that Respicio and Dutaro were turning them into convenient scapegoats or "fall gals."
"I did not get a single centavo, and I thought everything was above board until the passports started being returned by PIASI with the visa applications denied," Pangan said.
PIASI is the accredited visa application processing firm of the Embassy of Italy in the Philippines.
Following her husband's sudden demise in Saudi Arabia last June due to cancer, and with herself in great pain, Pangan lamented that her name and reputation as a registered nurse had been besmirched.
She also brought before Usapang OFW her plight regarding her husband's death benefits, being an overseas Filipino worker that she and her son are having difficulty getting.
The justice, foreign affairs, and migrant workers departments, as well as the National Bureau of Investigation, are investigating the scam that involved Alpha Assistenza collecting payments from each of the 400 complainants, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 euros.
