Illegal recruiter arrested at POEA
Nineteen discontented applicants for overseas jobs nabbed a recruiter last week at
the premises of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for his failure to
deploy them.
Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said the applicants, all of them coming from the
Ilocos provinces, sought help from POEA guards in arresting suspect Sandy Rhein
Agsalog Espina and brought him to the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch for
filing of formal charges.
In a joint affidavit, the complainants alleged that Espina, along with Alfred F. Chua
and Cathy Molinar, recruited them in July and August 2012 and promised to get them
jobs as salespersons, waiters, hotel workers and waiters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in
the United Arab Emirates for salaries ranging from PhP30,000 to Php50,000.
The complainants alleged that they were asked to pay an initial amount of PhP30,000
for placement fee and another Php40,000 on the date of departure.
Administrator Cacdac said the three recruiters, who have neither POEA authority nor
license to recruit or deploy Filipino overseas workers, have collected a little more
than Php500,000 from the 19 applicants.
The applicants narrated that the three recruiters asked them to be at POEA office in
Mandaluyong City on August 28, 2012 supposedly for their pre-departure
orientation seminar (PDOS), medical tests, and for their alleged flight for UAE at 6:45
P.M. The complainants came but not one of the three recruiters appeared.
Cacdac said that when arrested on August 29, 2012, Espina was supposed to meet
with one of the complainants at the POEA office to collect the balance of his
placement fee.
Unknown to Espina, all the other applicants trooped to POEA on the same day to
verify if the recruiters have license to recruit. Upon learning that the promised jobs
are non-existent, they decided to confront Espina and arrested him. Alfred F. Chua
and Cathy Molinar did not show up and were still at large.
Cacdac advised overseas job applicants to verify first if the recruiter has authority to
recruit and with approved job orders by calling the POEA hotlines 7221144 and
7221155 or by accessing the verification page of the POEA website poea.gov.ph.
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