Filipino on trial for being part of Cambodia scam syndicate says she travelled there for an office job, wanted to return home

SINGAPORE: A woman on trial for being part of a scam syndicate in Cambodia targeting victims in Singapore had gone there for a job and never wanted to be a scammer, the defence said on Thursday (Jun 4).

Testifying at the opening of the defence’s case, 35-year-old Filipina De Villar Rizalyn Panganiban described how she had gone to Cambodia for employment and realised only later it was a scam compound but needed money to return home.

The 35-year-old Filipina is accused of belonging to a criminal group in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and of conspiring to cheat people in Singapore via government official impersonation scams.

She was among the 12 people charged in September last year after the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Cambodian National Police disrupted the syndicate in a cross-border operation.

At the time, the police said the group was believed to be behind cases involving losses of over S$40 million (US$31 million). Several Singaporeans and Malaysians were charged along with De Villar, but hers is the first case to go to trial.

The prosecution closed its case on Thursday after calling two witnesses – a Tagalog interpreter and an investigation officer.

Before De Villar testified, her lawyer Mr Chooi Jing Yen opened the defence’s case by stating that it was an undisputed fact that his client thought she was going to be employed as an office employee for an online gambling company.

He noted from the contested charges that the time period the court was concerned with was between Mar 29, 2025 and Apr 24, 2025.

This was the period De Villar spent in the scam compound in Cambodia, before she departed for Laos, he said.

“In other words, she’s not being tried for anything she did while she was in Laos, or any information she gained after her departure from Cambodia,” said Mr Chooi.

He said his client only started to be suspicious after spending a few days in Cambodia and tried to find more information but was not given any.

She took a test but failed it and the syndicate did not deploy her, said Mr Chooi.

“Your honour will hear evidence that Ms De Villar really just wanted to go home, but she couldn’t,” he said.

“She didn’t have her passport, she didn’t have money, she didn’t know anybody in Cambodia, and the syndicate told her – if you want to go home, you need to raise money for your ticket, and that’s why she had to go along with them to be posted to Laos, hoping to earn some money so she can eventually find her way back.”

De Villar, who is remanded, wiped away tears with her shirt at this point.

Her lawyer alleged that De Villar had to lie to the syndicate while in Laos to escape their “clutches” by saying she had family matters to attend to, promising to come back.

“But she never intended to, and that is because she never wanted to be a scammer,” said Mr Chooi.

DE VILLAR TESTIFIES

De Villar testified through an interpreter that she went to Cambodia because a friend contacted her and asked if she wanted to work abroad.

“That time, I (was) facing a lot of problem, she then told me she’s going abroad and I could follow her,” she said, adding that the salary was US$1,500.

She said she did not accept the job immediately but only after a few days as she was “facing a lot of problems”.

She accepted the job on Mar 24, 2025 and the other side booked a flight ticket for her for three days later.

When she discovered the flight was to Malaysia, she asked why there was a need to go there, and was told that if she were to travel directly to Cambodia, she would be questioned by the Philippine immigration office.

De Villar transited through Malaysia on Mar 27, 2025 and arrived in Cambodia two days later. She said she carried only office attire and office shoes in her luggage.

She was received by a man waiting for her at the airport, who took her passport.

She was then driven to a call centre where the syndicate operated.

De Villar said she was given a script, but the script was not explained to her. She was also not told what it would be used for.

She said she was told that the commission she would receive comes from the money they would get from “the customer”.

“Since I work in call centre in Philippines, I know this process of training with this script,” said De Villar. “So I was … (waiting for) the trainer (to) explain to us the words in the script, how we (were) going to use it.”

She claimed she was not told how the script would be used.

The prosecution’s case is that De Villar knew “exactly what the group was doing” but chose to remain with the group and train to be a caller.

The prosecution said De Villar memorised the script so well she could write it out word for word months later when interviewed by Singapore police.

They also said she was told that her commission came from the money she had to “steal” from the customers.

The prosecutors also allege that De Villar began suspecting she was in a scam centre and understood it was in connection with scamming customers through impersonating an officer from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and shared this with a friend who had gone to Phnom Penh with her from the Philippines.

Nonetheless, she and her friend decided to stay on as they “wanted to earn the good money”, the prosecution alleges.

In her testimony, De Villar refuted the prosecution’s claims. Explaining how the term “steal” in the sense of stealing money from customers came about in her police statement, she said by the time she was interviewed by the police, she had an idea of what was going on so the first word that came into her mind was “steal”.

However, she had been told that the commission would come from the money she got from the customer.

She also denied saying that she had stayed on because she wanted to “earn the good money”, saying she never said those words to the investigation officer (IO).

“I told the IO I never heard the word ‘steal’ or ‘scam’ during the time I was in Cambodia,” said De Villar.

She said she recalled coming across news in the Philippines that people caught in these scam activities might be tortured or harmed if they did not produce results.

She also said she had previously read on the news or social media about how some people were tortured or had their internal organs removed by the scam group and she did not want to be in that situation.

De Villar said she had to pay the scam group US$1,000 to US$2,000 if she wanted to return to the Philippines, but she did not have that money.

De Villar is represented by Mr Chooi and Ms Claire Chong under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme.

The trial continues.

If convicted of being a member of an organised criminal group who commits an offence, De Villar could be jailed for up to five years, fined up to S$100,000, or both.

If convicted of cheating, she could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

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