POEA cancels 3 recruiters’ licenses

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has canceled the licenses of three recruitment firms for duping four migrant workers.

POEA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said the agencies failed to fulfill their responsibility to “give utmost protection to their workers before and after their deployment overseas.”

The license of Crosswind International Manpower Services was canceled based on the complaints of Lorena Saligumba and Diana Lalaine Castillo.

Saligumba and Castillo alleged that they were recruited to work as food server and cleaner, respectively, in Jordan but they ended up as domestic helpers and were physically abused by their employers.

Crosswind committed “acts of misrepresentation relative to the recruitment and deployment of the two workers and were found liable under POEA rules,” Cacdac said.

The firm also violated a policy on pre-departure orientation seminar, a requirement for newly hired overseas Filipino workers, he added.

The Asean Management and Technical Services Inc., on the other hand, was the subject of a complaint filed by Ricky Marcos, who alleged the company had illegally collected placement fees from him.

As a policy of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the allowable placement fee should be equivalent to a worker’s salary for one month.

Cacdac said that Silver Horizon was also found liable for  “misrepresentation, illegal exaction of placement fee, non-issuance of receipt, and unauthorized appointment of agents and employees.”

In her complaint against Silver Horizon, Marivic Salazar claimed that she applied as a domestic helper with the agency and was charged a placement fee that exceeded the limit set by DOLE.

Cacdac said Salazar was not able to leave the country and was held at the airport because she applied for a position of maintenance worker but what she had been given was a visit visa.