2 illegal recruiters nabbed

Joint elements of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) recently arrested two suspected swindlers who duped 14 aspiring overseas workers of more than P700,000.

However, POEA Administrator Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said despite efforts of the government to eradicate illegal recruitment, it persists in this country.

NBI Acting Director Nestor Mantaring said they filed charges of violation of Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995 before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Jose Eligado, alias Pepe, and Jocelyn Ranque, both of Pasig City.

Mantaring said their operation is part of their campaign against illegal labor recruiters.

Assistant Regional Director Vicente de Guzman III, of the NBI-Special Action Unit (SAU), said the suspects’ alleged modus operandi is to look for interested overseas workers and offer them employment to Macau and New Zealand. In return, they are asked to pay between P38,000 to P51,000 for processing fee.

One of the complainants said the suspects did manage to send them to Macau but there was no work waiting for them there. They were reportedly given only tourist visas with the promise that they would be given work once they arrive at the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China.

After several days, they realized that they were not going to find work and decided to seek the assistance of the Philippine Labor Attache to Hong Kong Bernardino Julvez. The diplomat immediately coordinated with the POEA, which in turn asked the NBI to set up an entrapment operation.

By then, the suspects were already allegedly asking job applicants Mary Jane Villaluz and Catherine Tamo for an additional P25,000 to speed up the processing of their application for New Zealand. They were supposed to leave tomorrow.

But De Guzman said Villaluz and Tamo became suspicious and decided to check if the suspects were accredited by the POEA and learned that they were not licensed to recruit workers for overseas employment.

The entrapment was conducted last June 7 at a fastfood joint in Pasay City. The joint NBI and POEA operatives apprehended Eligado and Ranque after they received the marked money.

Director Noriel Devanadera, of the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch (AIRB), said they have circulated posters to local government units and government offices to warn applicants of the modus operandi of illegal recruiters.

Devanadera added that modern communications technology has made illegal recruitment more convenient to swindlers.

"There is now a new strategy for victimizing prospective job applicants through e-mail. Suspects reportedly set up a website and interested applicants are asked to deposit the processing and application fees to a specific bank account.

Since the applicant and the swindlers no longer have to meet physically, Baldoz admitted that it has become more difficult to arrest them.