Held captive for months, job applicants refused rescue
Presidential Decree No. 442
Articles 38 of the Philippine Labor Code
"Art. 38. Illegal Recruitment. — (a) Any recruitment activities, including the prohibited practices enumerated under Article 34 of this Code, to be undertaken by non-licensees or non-holders of authority shall be deemed illegal and punishable under Article 39 of this Code. The Ministry of Labor and Employment or any law enforcement officers may initiate complaints under this Article.
Republic Act No. 9208
Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003
"...the State shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures and development of programs that will...eliminate trafficking in persons, and mitigate pressures for involuntary migration and servitude of persons, not only to support trafficked persons but more importantly, to ensure their recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration into the mainstream of society."
Supreme Court Decisions
“There is illegal recruitment when one purports to have the ability to send a worker abroad though without authority or license to do so" (Pp vs Villas, 277 SCRA 391)
“It is the lack of necessary license or authority that renders the recruitment activity unlawful or criminal." (Pp vs Borromeo, 305 SCRA 180)
“Failure of the complainants to ask for the receipts for the fees they paid, x x x, is not fatal to their case if they are able to duly prove by their testimonies the involvement of the accused in the recruitment process." (People vs. Comia, 136 SCRA 185)
About five hundred women were virtually held hostage in Manila, locked inside a decrepit six-story building, uncertain if the agency that recruited them would ever place them in jobs overseas.
But when government agents last week tried to rescue the illegally recruited job applicants, more than 400 declined to leave, still clinging to dwindling hopes that they would end up with dollar-earning work abroad.
Ninety seven of them did decide to go with their rescuers, telling the police stories of terrible living conditions and false promises made by a nationwide recruitment agency that the government had believed was "in good standing."
The Al-Alamia International Manpower Services Private Employment Agency had enticed the applicants from various parts of the country with offers to place them in overseas jobs as caregivers and domestic helpers in only two or three weeks.
But more than four months later, all of them were still locked inside the agency's "training facility" in San Andres, Manila and forced to use up their savings for their food and other expenses. They were told that they would be blacklisted with other recruitment agencies if they tried to leave.
Some of the applicants got desperate enough to contact the police, which mobilized the multisectoral Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (Tfair) to conduct the rescue operation last June 16.
Even the seasoned task force members were surprised by the number of job applicants crammed into makeshift living quarters. “Nakakulong sila dun, hindi sila pinapalabas, naliligo sila ng sabay-sabay, pinagluluto sila, sila pa bumibili ng niluluto nila [They were locked up, they couldn’t go out, they had to bathe together, they were ordered to cook, and pay for whatever they would cook]," said police Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, operations chief of the task force.
“Maraming gustong sumama pero sinasabihan daw kasi sila na iba-blacklist sila sa mga employer [Many wanted to come with us but couldn’t because they were told that they would be blacklisted with other employers]," said Sosa.
An agency 'in good standing'
Al-Alamia, a licensed recruitment agency with its main office in Ermita, Manila, has 12 regional branches nationwide, from Tuguegarao in the north to General Santos City in the south. GMANews.TV tried getting the side of Al-Alamia but was told that nobody of authority was available to speak for the agency as of posting time. Al-Alamia is owned by a Maria Dolores Elenany.
Elenany was not present at the training center when Tfair operatives raided it, said Sosa. “Nung time na yun, wala siya, yung lawyer lang yung nag-appear [During that time, she was not there, only her lawyer appeared]," he said, adding that the task force is preparing a case against her and her company.
“Malaki itong kumpanya na ito, parang one-stop shop ito eh, meron silang recruitment agency, meron silang training center, may assessment center [This is a big company. It’s like a one-stop shop – they have a recruitment agency, a training center and an assessment center]," Sosa said.
The agency recruited mostly women to work as domestic helpers, babysitters, drivers, and caregivers in countries like Kuwait and Qatar in the Middle East. Domestic helpers were supposed to get a monthly salary of US$200.
All 97 of those rescued executed complaint affidavits and promised not to withdraw, according to Sosa. More than half have returned to their home provinces, while the rest are still at a shelter maintained by the Visayas Forum Foundation, an NGO that assists human trafficking victims. The foundation declined a request to interview them over the phone.
A prosecutor has been assigned by the Department of Justice to assist the task force in pursuing the case. Chances are Al-Alamia will soon be delisted by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) as an agency in “good standing."
An uncommon nationality for illegal recruiter
These new victims add to the untold thousands, maybe millions, who have been cheated by overseas recruiters eager to cash in on a growing market of desperate job seekers.
Indicative of this veritable gold rush in illegal recruitment was not just the large number of victims in a single rescue operation, but the recent arrest in a separate case of a Briton, a nationality not previously known to be involved in this criminal activity.
The Tfair's Sosa identified the suspect as Steven Michael Randell, who has been accused of running a recruitment scam in the guise of a special student visa program.
Randell's Sawsee International Corporation and Smart Promotion also enticed applicants with high-paying jobs like chefs and nurses in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and New Zealand through their website.
According to the Sawsee website, the agency “was formed in 2004 and quickly established itself as a leading force in exchange programs and has been dedicated to the promotion of cultural understanding, academic development, as well as promoting educational enhancement."
But after an Analisa Ng, along with six others, complained that Sawsee was just ripping off applicants, the task force conducted an entrapment operation last June 11 at the agency’s Quezon City office.
“Ginawa niyang front ng kanilang recruitment activity ang pangako ng student visa na walang otoridad ng POEA [He made the promise of a student visa the front of their recruitment activity which was not authorized by the POEA]," said Sosa.
He said Randell has been charged with large-scale syndicated illegal recruitment for asking for hundreds of thousands of pesos from applicants as fees for non-existent student training programs.
The Briton is being held at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City and is not allowed to post bail.
Unserved arrest warrants
For every illegal recruiter that ends up behind bars, many more remain at large. At least 276 Filipino individuals have a total of more than 20,000 unserved warrants of arrest for large-scale illegal recruitment. Each warrant represents a complaint from an alleged victim.
The top suspect, identified as Harleta Velasco, had 134 arrest warrants for illegal recruitment and estafa (fraud), which means she continued to prey on job seekers even after warrants were issued for her arrest.
Joining Velasco on top of the list were Rosemarie Liwanag (82), Maricar Inovero (79), Corazon Ventura (48), Amelia Gabriel (29), Beverly Tuazon (27), Maria Harleta Velasco (27) – suspected to be the same recruiter with the most number of arrests— Aminola Camarudin (24), and Marissa Biyalat (24).
According to HumanTrafficking.org, the Philippines has become a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. The website said that the Philippine government and non-government organizations estimate the number of trafficked Filipino women to range between 300,000 and 400,000. GMNews.TV
Articles 38 of the Philippine Labor Code
"Art. 38. Illegal Recruitment. — (a) Any recruitment activities, including the prohibited practices enumerated under Article 34 of this Code, to be undertaken by non-licensees or non-holders of authority shall be deemed illegal and punishable under Article 39 of this Code. The Ministry of Labor and Employment or any law enforcement officers may initiate complaints under this Article.
Republic Act No. 9208
Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003
"...the State shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures and development of programs that will...eliminate trafficking in persons, and mitigate pressures for involuntary migration and servitude of persons, not only to support trafficked persons but more importantly, to ensure their recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration into the mainstream of society."
Supreme Court Decisions
“There is illegal recruitment when one purports to have the ability to send a worker abroad though without authority or license to do so" (Pp vs Villas, 277 SCRA 391)
“It is the lack of necessary license or authority that renders the recruitment activity unlawful or criminal." (Pp vs Borromeo, 305 SCRA 180)
“Failure of the complainants to ask for the receipts for the fees they paid, x x x, is not fatal to their case if they are able to duly prove by their testimonies the involvement of the accused in the recruitment process." (People vs. Comia, 136 SCRA 185)
About five hundred women were virtually held hostage in Manila, locked inside a decrepit six-story building, uncertain if the agency that recruited them would ever place them in jobs overseas.
But when government agents last week tried to rescue the illegally recruited job applicants, more than 400 declined to leave, still clinging to dwindling hopes that they would end up with dollar-earning work abroad.
Ninety seven of them did decide to go with their rescuers, telling the police stories of terrible living conditions and false promises made by a nationwide recruitment agency that the government had believed was "in good standing."
The Al-Alamia International Manpower Services Private Employment Agency had enticed the applicants from various parts of the country with offers to place them in overseas jobs as caregivers and domestic helpers in only two or three weeks.
But more than four months later, all of them were still locked inside the agency's "training facility" in San Andres, Manila and forced to use up their savings for their food and other expenses. They were told that they would be blacklisted with other recruitment agencies if they tried to leave.
Some of the applicants got desperate enough to contact the police, which mobilized the multisectoral Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (Tfair) to conduct the rescue operation last June 16.
Even the seasoned task force members were surprised by the number of job applicants crammed into makeshift living quarters. “Nakakulong sila dun, hindi sila pinapalabas, naliligo sila ng sabay-sabay, pinagluluto sila, sila pa bumibili ng niluluto nila [They were locked up, they couldn’t go out, they had to bathe together, they were ordered to cook, and pay for whatever they would cook]," said police Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, operations chief of the task force.
“Maraming gustong sumama pero sinasabihan daw kasi sila na iba-blacklist sila sa mga employer [Many wanted to come with us but couldn’t because they were told that they would be blacklisted with other employers]," said Sosa.
An agency 'in good standing'
Al-Alamia, a licensed recruitment agency with its main office in Ermita, Manila, has 12 regional branches nationwide, from Tuguegarao in the north to General Santos City in the south. GMANews.TV tried getting the side of Al-Alamia but was told that nobody of authority was available to speak for the agency as of posting time. Al-Alamia is owned by a Maria Dolores Elenany.
Elenany was not present at the training center when Tfair operatives raided it, said Sosa. “Nung time na yun, wala siya, yung lawyer lang yung nag-appear [During that time, she was not there, only her lawyer appeared]," he said, adding that the task force is preparing a case against her and her company.
“Malaki itong kumpanya na ito, parang one-stop shop ito eh, meron silang recruitment agency, meron silang training center, may assessment center [This is a big company. It’s like a one-stop shop – they have a recruitment agency, a training center and an assessment center]," Sosa said.
The agency recruited mostly women to work as domestic helpers, babysitters, drivers, and caregivers in countries like Kuwait and Qatar in the Middle East. Domestic helpers were supposed to get a monthly salary of US$200.
All 97 of those rescued executed complaint affidavits and promised not to withdraw, according to Sosa. More than half have returned to their home provinces, while the rest are still at a shelter maintained by the Visayas Forum Foundation, an NGO that assists human trafficking victims. The foundation declined a request to interview them over the phone.
A prosecutor has been assigned by the Department of Justice to assist the task force in pursuing the case. Chances are Al-Alamia will soon be delisted by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) as an agency in “good standing."
An uncommon nationality for illegal recruiter
These new victims add to the untold thousands, maybe millions, who have been cheated by overseas recruiters eager to cash in on a growing market of desperate job seekers.
Indicative of this veritable gold rush in illegal recruitment was not just the large number of victims in a single rescue operation, but the recent arrest in a separate case of a Briton, a nationality not previously known to be involved in this criminal activity.
The Tfair's Sosa identified the suspect as Steven Michael Randell, who has been accused of running a recruitment scam in the guise of a special student visa program.
Randell's Sawsee International Corporation and Smart Promotion also enticed applicants with high-paying jobs like chefs and nurses in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and New Zealand through their website.
According to the Sawsee website, the agency “was formed in 2004 and quickly established itself as a leading force in exchange programs and has been dedicated to the promotion of cultural understanding, academic development, as well as promoting educational enhancement."
But after an Analisa Ng, along with six others, complained that Sawsee was just ripping off applicants, the task force conducted an entrapment operation last June 11 at the agency’s Quezon City office.
“Ginawa niyang front ng kanilang recruitment activity ang pangako ng student visa na walang otoridad ng POEA [He made the promise of a student visa the front of their recruitment activity which was not authorized by the POEA]," said Sosa.
He said Randell has been charged with large-scale syndicated illegal recruitment for asking for hundreds of thousands of pesos from applicants as fees for non-existent student training programs.
The Briton is being held at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City and is not allowed to post bail.
Unserved arrest warrants
For every illegal recruiter that ends up behind bars, many more remain at large. At least 276 Filipino individuals have a total of more than 20,000 unserved warrants of arrest for large-scale illegal recruitment. Each warrant represents a complaint from an alleged victim.
The top suspect, identified as Harleta Velasco, had 134 arrest warrants for illegal recruitment and estafa (fraud), which means she continued to prey on job seekers even after warrants were issued for her arrest.
Joining Velasco on top of the list were Rosemarie Liwanag (82), Maricar Inovero (79), Corazon Ventura (48), Amelia Gabriel (29), Beverly Tuazon (27), Maria Harleta Velasco (27) – suspected to be the same recruiter with the most number of arrests— Aminola Camarudin (24), and Marissa Biyalat (24).
According to HumanTrafficking.org, the Philippines has become a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. The website said that the Philippine government and non-government organizations estimate the number of trafficked Filipino women to range between 300,000 and 400,000. GMNews.TV
Comments