EDITORIAL — Not victims but willing accomplices

Reports about Filipinos being smuggled abroad and roped or coerced into working for scam hubs in other countries are nothing new. As per previous reports, scam hubs in different countries across Southeast Asia have a preference for Filipinos because they speak English with an accent that appeals most to prospective victims.

But if a news item from News5 is to be believed, some Filipinos are now willingly working for such operations.

In a report regarding 200 Filipinos asking to be repatriated from Myanmar after being fooled into working for a scam hub, one segment claims some Filipinos are there willingly and don’t want to leave.

"These individuals wouldn't want to exit the compounds and many of them are trying to move in on other compounds so that they can continue their online scamming," the online report quotes Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime senior expert Jason Tower as saying.

News5 also said some of their sources confirmed that in Cambodia, many Filipinos are now also willingly working in scam hubs.

This is disturbing, to say the least. When before Filipinos had to be smuggled out of the country, fooled into working for scam hubs, and held against their will, it would seem that some of them are now willing to do so without coercion and even want to stay.

We know that finding good paying work is hard for many Filipinos in our own country; this is why many seek employment abroad no matter what the risks or how vague the promises. But if they willingly engage in criminal activities like scamming --no matter how small their role-- then they cease to become victims and turn into accomplices.

And when they get caught, they will face not only the justice of the host country, but also of the victims they willingly gypped.

In the long run this will also be bad for other Filipinos because it blurs the line between victim and accomplice, and a result Filipinos found in such operations in the future may be branded as accomplices instead of victims.

Honest Filipinos desperate for jobs can be warned of what awaits them in scam hubs abroad; but what do we tell Filipinos who are more than willing to work in such criminal industries to deter them?