TESDA breaks up ARB clique

"Reform or perish!" This was President Arroyo’s marching order to government that guided the Technical Education And Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in breaking the multi-billion syndicate lording it over the assessment and certification of Overseas Performing Artists destined for Japan.

Former representative now TESDA Director General Dante Liban claimed success in scuttling the syndicate deeply entrenched after manipulating the system for over 20 years. "A part of the syndicate is organic in TESDA," he said, adding that industry players who were manipulating the previous system needed support from TESDA.

The TESDA officer assigned to OPAs operations, BGen. Nestor Castillo (ret.) said the process of correcting the system to break the hold of the syndicate started with breaking up the monopoly of testing venues and recruiting more testing officers coming from the academe and respected names in the entertainment industry.

"The whole system was overhauled, making it most difficult of collusion between recruitment agencies, testing venues and testing officers," Castillo said, explaining why the passing rate dramatically dropped from 95 percent to 55 percent. Castillo said this percentage drop translates to about 20,000 not passing the assessment and "this means losses of over P4 billion in industry commission in five months alone."

Industry sources said the OPAs sector of the overseas placement industry is a P30-billion business a year. There are about 50,000 Filipino talents in Japan and this even reached 75,000 some years back. Each talent signs up with a club in Japan for $1,900 but they only receive $400.

One thousand five hundred dollars go to the recruitment agency, the talent manager, the talent scout and the Japanese agency.

TESDA insiders said before Liban, corrupting the system that led to the poor image of the entertainers working for Japan was most easy with P25,000 to even P50,000 changing hands for the Artist Record Book (ARBs), a basic requirement for deployment that certifies to the talent of the holder.