Illegal recruiter placed on watchlist

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration has placed on its watchlist an illegal recruiter allegedly responsible for duping several Filipino workers who were enticed to travel to Ho Chi Minh City on the promise of high paying jobs in Vietnam.

In the BI watchlist on orders of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan is Melchora Gabog, a Filipino businesswoman who is based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Libanan issued the order at the request of the Department of Foriegn Affairs which received reports on Gabog’s activities from the Philippine embassy in Hanoi.

“Our campaign against illegal recruitment and human trafficking is not limited to blacklisting foreigners engaged in these illegal activities. Filipinos who engage in the same scheme and victimize thier own countrymen should also be made answerable for their offenses,” Libanan said.

The BI chief said that as a result of the watchlist, Gabog can now be prevented from traveling to Vietnam unless she is cleared by the DFA, thus deterring her from victimizing more overseas jobseekers.

Ma. Agnes Cervantes, of the DFA’s office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs, informed Libanan that the embassy received a complaint from a certain Rowena Guillermo, one of Gabog’s alleged victims.

Guillermo, according to Cervantes, is presently stranded in Ho Chi Minh City along with six other Filipinos who were likewise enticed by Gabog to travel to Vietnam.

Quoting a report from Laura del Rosario, the Philippine ambassador to Vietnam, Guillermo had claimed that Gabog arranged for her travel to Vietnam and a job is waiting for her.

Guillermo said she paid Gabog a certain amount of money, but upon reaching Ho Chi Minh City, she discovered that her recruiter had also “hired” six other Filipinos who are staying in a rented house.

The compalinant further recounted that after a few days, more “recruits arrived in the house and all of them claimed they paid Gabog placement fees from P20,000 to P30,000 each for thier trip.”

To date, Gabog has been unsuccesful in finding jobs for the recruits, Cervantes said in her letter to Libanan.