2 firms lose license over illegal recruitment

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) ordered Thursday the cancellation of the licenses of two agencies for illegal recruitment.

POEA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said Al-Sadiq Manpower Corp. and MEDRP International Philippines Inc. violated Section 6 of Republic Act 8042, the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.

“Clearly, through deception, the recruitment agency tried to avoid the strict requirements of the POEA in the recruitment and deployment of household service workers,” he noted.

Under Section 6 (c) of RA 8042, it is considered a form of illegal recruitment “to give any false notice, testimony, information or document or commit any act of misrepresentation.”

A couple filed a case against Al-Sadiq after they were stopped by immigration officers from boarding their flight for Saudi Arabia due to inconsistencies in their travel and employment documents.

The complainants alleged that they were recruited by a freelance agent who referred them to Al-Sadiq for employment as household service worker and driver, respectively, for a family in Saudi Arabia with a monthly salary of 1,200 riyals.

The couple said they were given pre-deployment orientation seminar certificates indicating they were to work as data encoder and laborer.

 In the case of MEDRP, a complainant alleged that she was recruited by a certain Felix Villanueva to work as a household service worker for Al Jazzi Abu Zalman in Kuwait.

Villanueva supposedly assured the complainant that she would be deployed without a local agent but her records with the POEA indicate that she was deployed by MEDRP as a “promodizer” for Gulf Integration Establishment for General Trading and Contracting, also in Kuwait.

Upon arriving in Kuwait, Al Jazzi Abu Zalman brought her to her first employer, where she stayed for only 45 days. She asked to be repatriated after suffering from sexual abuse and maltreatment.



The agency, however, deployed the complainant to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where she suffered further maltreatment from her employers.

The POEA found out about this when her husband sought the agency’s assistance.