Illegal recruiter from Navotas jailed

An illegal recruiter from Navotas was arrested and jailed Friday for reportedly defrauding four clients of hundreds of thousands of pesos, supposedly as payment for employment abroad.

Cenona Lim, 44, a native of Cebu City, and a resident of 49 A. Ignacio st., Barangay Daang Hari in Navotas is now locked up at the Caloocan City Jail. She is facing charges of large-scale illegal recruitment.

Caloocan City prosecutor Ferdinand Valbuena denied bail for Lim’s temporary liberty.

Metro Manila police chief Director Vidal Querol ordered Lim’s arrest after four of her alleged victims identified as Naomi Gloria, 43; Algerica Marquez, 24; Ramil Albotra, 38; all natives of Leyte, and Laurio Lopido, 25, of Tacloban City, sought Querol’s assistance last Jan. 17.

The victims told Querol that Lim and four other suspects recruited them in 2004 to work in Australia or New Zealand as apple pickers, cooks, gardeners and carpenters.

The suspects, they said, convinced them to pay a placement fee ranging from P150,000 to P200,000 for their desired job.

The complainants claimed that Lim and her cohorts already collected a total of P610,000 and is asking for more, but nothing has happened to their job applications abroad.

Investigation conducted by the Regional Intelligence Special Operations Office, led by Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., tasked by Querol to look into the case, showed that Lim and her cohorts Mary Ann Pamatian, Anicita Anderson, Rodney Wilson and Amelia Arogando, are not authorized or licensed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) to recruit workers abroad.

At around 5 p.m. on Thursday, Ramos’ men, accompanied by the complainants, conducted an entrapment operation against Lim and her group in a shopping mall in Monumento, Caloocan City.