It was a travel offer that Sylvia Estopacia described as hard to resist. An all-inclusive vacation for five days at a luxury hotel in Punta Cana, Mexico—flight included—all for $630 per person.
Estopacia, a Filipino based in Montreal, says the offer was sold by a fellow Filipino named Jamaica Salvador Lacaba from Calgary. Estopacia adds she encountered her online but has never met Lacaba in person.
Not wanting to miss out on the deal, Estopacia, along with five of her friends, booked the trip to Mexico through Lacaba. The group flew to the country in June 2025 and had the summer vacation they wanted.
After that trip, Lacaba allegedly offered Estopacia a cruise package from Rome to Greece for $600 per person, which included plane tickets.
“The cruise was cheap. You wouldn’t believe it. We went on a cruise before, it was $2,000,” Estopacia tells OMNI News. “For her (Lacaba), it’s $600 only.”
Since there were no issues with the Mexico trip she booked through Lacaba, Estopacia says she went ahead and booked the offered cruise to Greece. She also booked the trip for 13 of her family members. But that family trip never happened.
“I realized I was stupid. Why? It’s too good to be true,” she says. “[Lacaba] will make sure the first trip pushes through to get the trust of people. Then your next booking won’t happen anymore.”
Estopacia is one of eight people who spoke with OMNI News to share their stories, alleging that Lacaba did not deliver the travel packages they had booked through her.
‘I lost a lot of weight. I can’t eat’
An Ontario woman, who requested OMNI News to withhold her identity, says she has been suffering from stress and anxiety since she started dealing with Lacaba online back in June.
“For a week, I lost a lot of weight. I can’t eat,” she says, voice shaking as she shares her ordeal with Lacaba.
She says she’d heard friends get “good travel deals” from Lacaba, so she decided to book a trip for herself and ten of her friends to Vancouver last July, so they could spend Canada Day in the city.
According to the Ontario woman, Lacaba allegedly sold her a vacation deal that cost $340 per person for five days and four nights at a hotel in Downtown Vancouver with flights included.
“We’re all prepared, our luggage,” she says. “Eleven of us, ready to travel.”
But she received a call from Lacaba telling her their flight to Vancouver was cancelled.
“I told her, ‘Ja, don’t be like that. Don’t be like that, Ja,” she says as she recounts what she describes as their group’s travel nightmare.
Complaints from across Canada, the Philippines against Lacaba
More than 60 people from Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan are now requesting a refund from Lacaba after purchasing vacation packages that allegedly did not materialize and paid for flights for which they did not receive proof of confirmation.
Complainants say they are holding onto copies of payment transfers to Lacaba’s bank account and a copy of Lacaba’s expired driver’s license that she sent them.
In a file collated by Estopacia, Lacaba allegedly owes a total of $402,481.73 to more than 70 individuals as of September 25, 2025. Estopacia claims the list of complainants continues to grow.
The complaints against Lacaba have even reached the Philippines.
In August, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an agency under the Philippines’ Department of Justice, served a subpoena at Lacaba’s address in the country due to a complaint filed by a travel agency. OMNI News has received a copy of the subpoena and confirmed with the NBI.
Rachelle Ina Rodelas, owner of Rior Wanders Travel and Tours, has been booking trips for Lacaba’s clients since March. Rodelas says that initially, she did not have problems with payments from Lacaba. However, in July, she claims Lacaba allegedly failed to pay her more than $8,000 she is owed.
“I started to message those people I booked, and I asked them if they already paid Lacaba,” she tells OMNI News from her home in the Philippines.
“I was able to confirm that they paid Lacaba, and she also owes them money.”
OMNI News: Filipino has sent multiple text messages to Lacaba to get her side of the story.
On August 20, Lacaba committed to an in-person interview in Vancouver. A day before the scheduled interview, she sent a text message saying she won’t be able to make it to the meeting due to death threats.
On August 29, she promised to give a statement through her lawyer. This did not happen.
Lacaba then promised to release a statement on September 8, but OMNI News did not hear from her.
“The stress, the anxiety. I surrendered everything to God,” says the woman from Ontario. Estopacia from Montreal says instead of enjoying a time of rest, Lacaba allegedly “ruined the vacation of people.”
In a statement, the Calgary Police Service confirmed they have received complaints against Lacaba and an investigation is ongoing.
