POEA investigates another “lazy recruiter”

News Advisory
27 June 2014

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration is investigating another licensed recruitment agency which was found passing on to a visa consultation company the recruitment of workers it deploys for overseas jobs.

Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said operatives of the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch , in coordination with PNP-NCR Eastern Police District Station 2, recently closed down the office of a visa consultancy company whose owner readily admitted that she was recruiting for a licensed recruitment agency.

Cacdac identified the visa consultancy office as Pathways Visa Consultancy located at Suite 303, Arnal Center Residences, Caruncho Avenue, Pasig City and its owner, a certain Miraflor Sibayan Castillejos, a native of Cauayan City, Isabela.

Castillejos disclosed that she endorses the employment papers of her applicants to Century High HR Inc., a licensed agency, for processing by the POEA.

Cacdac has a post in his Twitter account directed to recruitment agencies that says, “ If you are too lazy to recruit as a licensed POEA recruiter, please stop recruiting and surrender your license back to the POEA.”
He also cautioned the public against engaging the services of these recruiters.

“Please be gravely warned about some licensed recruiters who do not actually recruit, and merely act as "processors" of people recruited as domestic workers by the actual recruiters who are not licensed,” Cacdac wrote.

Cacdac said Pathways Visa Consultancy committed illegal recruitment defined under Section 6 of Republic Act 8042, specifically by performing activities constituting recruitment and placement without valid license or authority from the Department of Labor and Employment or the POEA.

Officers of the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch reported that they found employment application forms, and photocopies of passports and visas inside the consultancy office.

Cacdac ordered the inclusion of the names of Miraflor Sibayan Castillejos and Pathways Visa Consultancy in the List of Persons and Establishments with derogatory records, thereby disqualifying them from the government’s overseas employment program.

POEA padlocks Helper-In Employment Center office

News Release
19 June 2014

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration recently closed down the
office of a recruitment agency which was found operating without a valid
license or authority from the Administration.

A composite team from the POEA Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch and PNP-
Manila Police District in Malate implemented the closure order issued by
Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac against Helper-In Employment Center
located at Room 201, 2nd Floor Ester Building, 1945 Taft Avenue, Malate,
Manila.

Cacdac said Helper-In Employment Center was reported to have been recruiting
domestic workers for Hong Kong and was forwarding the applicants’ papers to
SBEE International Inc., a POEA-licensed agency, for processing.

Helper-In Employment Center is allegedly owned by a certain Lorna De Dios,
the incumbent vice-president of SBEE International Inc.

Cacdac said the POEA’s Prosecution Division is filing illegal recruitment cases
against De Dios and five employees of Helper-In Employment Center, and the
names of its officers and employees will be included in the POEA List of
Persons with Derogatory Record.

The POEA is filing separate recruitment violation cases against SBEE
International Inc., Cacdac added. /

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Jollibee the fastfood giant, produces a video of foreigners why they love Filipinos

Jollibee the fastfood giant, produces a video of  foreigners why they love Filipinos

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POEA Marks Migrant Workers Day with OFWs

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration will celebrate Migrant Workers
Day by extending welfare and health services and livelihood assistance to overseas
Filipino workers who will visit the POEA office in Mandaluyong City on Friday, June
6, 2014.

Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said that with the theme “Magkasangga Para sa
Kapakanan, Kabuhayan at Kalusugan ng OFW”, this year’s celebration will highlight
the collaborative efforts among government and private stakeholders of overseas
employment in providing these services to the workers.

“As part of the government’s health awareness campaign and with OWWA, DOH,
recruitment agencies and medical clinics associations cooperating with the POEA,
visitors may avail of free polio vaccine, medical consultation, medicine and vitamins
during the day”, Cacdac said.

Attached agencies of the Department of Labor and Employment, including TESDA,
OWWA and PRC, and other government agencies like Philhealth, SSS, and Pag-ibig
will provide information on their respective programs and services. POEA lawyers
will offer legal assistance.

OWWA’s National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO) will showcase its
livelihood and entrepreneurship programs and services to overseas Filipino workers
returning permanently to the Philippines.

TESDA will have demonstrations on skills that interested workers can acquire through
its accredited technical vocational institutions (TVIs).

The POEA will also activate the new queuing system installed at the Balik-Manggagawa Processing Center.

Other highlights of the celebration are the following: unveiling of the mural at the 

POEA perimeter wall that was designed and painted by member artists of Teach 

Peace, Build Peace Movement; showing of pre-employment orientation video; and 

the introduction of the POEA mobile app. 

Partners from the private sector will provide raffle prizes, free snacks, and 

tokens/souvenir items to guests and transacting OFWs. 

 

Some of the above mentioned activities will be duplicated in the regional and 

provincial offices of the POEA. 

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POEA warns OFWs on certain jobs in Canada

Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac yesterday warned overseas job applicants
against accepting offers of employment in the food services sector in Canada.

Cacdac said the Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada
(ESDC) imposed a moratorium on the Food Services Sector's access to the
Temporary Foreign Worker Program, in response to allegations that the
program was being abused in order to displace Canadian workers.

Technically, with the moratorium, the ESDC will not process any new or
pending application for Labor Market Opinion (LMO) and no work permit for
temporary foreign workers will be approved, thereby rendering any job offered
by the recruiter that was affected by the freeze non-existent.

“To avoid illegal recruitment, job applicants should reject offers of employment
in pizza, hotdog, or other fast food franchise counters in Canada”, Cacdac said.

Cacdac said occupations such as food counter attendants, kitchen helpers,
restaurant and food service managers, food service supervisors, food and
beverage servers, cashiers, chefs, cooks, bakers, sales, marketing and
advertising managers, executive housekeepers, cleaning supervisors, butchers,
meat cutters and fishmongers, sales representatives, retail salespersons and sales
clerks, hosts/hostesses, bartenders, janitors, and caretakers, among others,
in establishments primarily engaged in preparing meals, snacks and beverages,
to customer orders for immediate consumption on and off the premises, were
covered by the moratorium.

The suspension does not include food service activities that occur within
establishments such as hotels, civic and social associations, amusement and
recreation parks, and theatres, but leased food-service locations in facilities such
as hotels, shopping malls, airports and department stores are included.

The suspension does not include food service activities that occur within
establishments such as hotels, civic and social associations, amusement and
recreation parks, and theatres, but leased food-service locations in facilities such
as hotels, shopping malls, airports and department stores are included.

The suspension does not include food service activities that occur within
establishments such as hotels, civic and social associations, amusement and
recreation parks, and theatres, but leased food-service locations in facilities such
as hotels, shopping malls, airports and department stores are included.

He said the moratorium will remain in effect until the completion of the on-going Canadian government review of the Temporary Foreign Worker
Program.












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POEA suspends recruiter for providing OFW with two visas

Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac ordered the preventive suspension of
Chanceteam International Services, Inc. for issuing two different visas to a
household service worker bound for the United Arab Emirates.

Cacdac said the recruitment agency attempted to send a female worker to Dubai
last month at Ninoy Aquino International Airport with visas for “sales staff” and
“servant”.

POEA officers prevented the worker from leaving the country when she presented
two different visas for pre-departure verification at the Labor Assistance Center at
NAIA Terminal 2.

Cacdac said that during the interrogation of the worker, she admitted that she was
going to work as domestic helper in Dubai, and a representative of Chanceteam
handed her two different UAE visas prior to her flight on April 14, 2014. The
worker said the agent directed her to present the visa bearing the “sales staff”
position at the airport and the “servant” visa to her employer in Dubai.

The worker narrated that when she reported to the recruitment agency the day
following her failed departure, the agent instructed her to tell the POEA officers
that the “servant” visa was obtained on her behalf by her cousin in Dubai but she
absentmindedly brought it to the airport.

Cacdac said Chanceteam has committed serious violations relative to the
recruitment and placement of the OFW, including misrepresentation and
falsification of travel documents, and its continued operation will lead to further
violation and exploitation of the workers it recruits.

With the order of preventive suspension, Chanceteam International Services, Inc.
cannot recruit or deploy overseas Filipino workers until further ordered by the
POEA./

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Suspected illegal recruiters arrested

The joint operatives of the Anti- Illegal Recruitment Branch of the Philippine
Overseas Employment Administration and Anti-Transnational Crime Unit
(ATCU) of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) have
arrested Vilma B. Taguba and Reneil Tugal through an entrapment operation on
May 27, 2014.

In a report to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis Baldoz, POEA
Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac said the two suspects promised three
applicants jobs in a hotel in Malaysia under the “direct hire” scheme.

The recruiters allegedly collected P9,800.00 from each applicant for processing
of passports and initial down payment. They were about to make their final
payment of P7,500.00 each but decided to seek the assistance of the Operations
and Surveillance Division (OSD) of the Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch
(AIRB) to verify the status of their recruiter.

Cacdac said the recruiters have no license or authority to conduct recruitment
for overseas employment.

Taguba and Tugal were brought before Assistant City Prosecutor Juliet Susan
C. Garcia of Pasay City for inquest proceedings for Large Scale Illegal
Recruitment and Estafa docketed as NPS XV-13-INQ-14-E 00928-31.

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