Dangerous referrals

This is another case of illegal recruitment. One of the issues raised here is what constitutes recruitment. This is the case of Marina.

Between February 1993 and July 1994, Marina represented herself to Doming, Cito, Vic and Arnie as having the capacity to send them as factory workers in South Korea. As placement and processing fees, Marina asked the four applicants various amounts. Based on her representations, Doming gave her P30,000; Cito, P40,000; Vic P39,000 and Arnie P29,000. After receiving the money, Marina failed to deploy the four applicants for work abroad. Later on the four found out that she was not a holder of a license or authority to deploy workers abroad.

So on June 21, 1995, Marina, together with her two children were charged among others with the crime of Illegal Recruitment on a Large Scale. During the trial, the four victims testified and reiterated what Marina did to them: that she impressed upon them she had authority to deploy them for employment abroad; that she received various amounts from them as evidenced by receipts; and that she was not a licensee or holder of authority to deploy workers abroad.

Based on the testimonial and documentary evidence, Marina was convicted by the Regional Trial Court of Illegal Recruitment in Large Scale. Her conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals (CA). Still Marina questioned their decisions. She maintained that she could not be convicted of such crime because she merely assisted complainants in their applications with a recruitment agency, the JH Imperial Organization Placement Corp. to which she turned over the amounts she received from them. Was she correct?

No. Recruitment and placement refers to any act of canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring or procuring workers, and includes referrals, contract services, promising or advertising for employment, locally or abroad, for profit or not (Article 13 [b], Labor Code). Hence even conceding that Marina merely referred the four complainants to JH Imperial Organization Placement Corp., the same still constituted an act of recruitment. As explicitly enumerated in the Labor Code (Art.13 b), “recruitment and placement includes the act of making referrals whether for profit or not”. Mere suggestion to complainants where they could apply for overseas employment already constitutes “referral” within the meaning of the law. Referral is the act of passing along or forwarding of an applicant for employment after an initial interview, to a selected employer, placement officer or bureau.

The fact alone that Marina was not a licensee or holder of authority to deploy workers abroad, she is already deemed to have engaged in illegal recruitment. The fact that JH Imperial was a holder of a valid license to deploy workers abroad did not benefit Marina since there was no evidence at all that said recruitment agency authorized her to act as its agent.

The three elements of the crime of illegal recruitment are: (1) the offender has no valid license or authority required by law enabling him/her to recruit and make placements of workers; (2) the offender undertakes any of the activities within the meaning of recruitment or placement under Article 13 (b) or any of the prohibited acts enumerated in Article 34 of the Labor Code; and (3) the offender committed the same against three or more persons individually or as a group. All of these elements are present in the instant case. Consequently the RTC and CA are correct in convicting Marina (People vs. Martinez, G.R. 158627, March 5, 2010).

Note: Books containing compilation of my articles on Labor Law and Criminal Law (Vols. I and II) are now available. Call tel. 7249445.

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