12 OFWs briefly held in Singapore over questionable travel papers

Twelve overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on their way to the Middle East were briefly held at an airport in Singapore for allegedly having questionable travel documents.

Reports reaching the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila said the 12 were barred from boarding their connecting flight. Aside from their travel papers, authorities also suspected that the OFWs' plane tickets were purchased through fake credit cards.

Based on the report of Labor Attaché Vicente Cabe of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Singapore, the 12 were supposed to work as domestic workers in various Middle East countries and made a stopover at Changi Airport.

“They were turned over to the Airport Police Department, which contacted us in the POLO,” Cabe said.

The POLO then contacted the OFWs’ respective agencies and asked the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to verify if their deployment were legitimate.

After the POEA verified the legitimacy of the deployment, POLO Singapore asked the 12 OFWs to decide whether to pursue their employment abroad. Of the 12, four decided to return to the Philippines. They arrived in Manila on September 9.

Cabe said the OFWs' respective agencies provided them with tickets, both for those bound to the Middle East and those bound for the  Philippines.

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz lauded POLO Singapore for its swift assistance to the OFWs, and ordered POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac to look closely into the case and determine if there was fault in either of the parties.

Baldoz said the POEA’s findings will determine whether an appropriate sanction will be issued against an erring party. —KBK, GMA News

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