DOLE steps up campaign against illegal recruitment

CEBU, Philippines - The labor agency seeks to intensify its anti-illegal recruitment campaign in the country to ensure the welfare of overseas Filipino workers, including those who are still planning to work abroad.

This developed, following the entrapment operation conducted by Department of Labor and Employment in Region 7 last Feb. 14, together with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 operatives, that led to the arrest of three personnel of a local recruitment agency in Cebu City.

“The labor department and its regional offices strengthens its campaign to look after the welfare of the OFWs and Filipinos who plan to work abroad. DOLE under the law is mandated to inspect and verify should various recruitment agencies violate laws, particularly on illegal recruitment,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement.

Bello said the arrested individuals were employees of Feljobs Manpower Services located in M.L. Quezon St., Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, whose license as a private recruitment and placement agency expired in 2014.

Despite that, the agency still continued its recruitment activities.

DOLE-7 Regional Head Exequiel Sarcauga earlier reported that they had been monitoring the activities of Feljobs since October 2016 and found out the agency continued to hire workers and publish recruitment advertisements in local newspapers.

The agency has also been proven extorting applicants of P850 per head as payment for identification card (ID) and for pre-employment medical examination and were only told to wait, leaving most of the applicants uncertain whether they would eventually land a job or not.

The labor agency is still monitoring four other recruitment agencies which might also be engaged in illegal activities and continues to check on other agencies’ operation permits to check if they are conducting illegal recruitment activities.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has urged the public to report to their hotline numbers 722-11-44 or 722-11-55 any recruitment activity of this nature and warned the public from applying at unlicensed recruitment agencies, including dealing with any person who is not an authorized representative of a licensed agency. (FREEMAN)