Illegal recruitment
THE recent arrest of alleged illegal recruiters in Metropolitan Manila has thrust outfront anew the need to rid the dollar-oriented manpower export industry of “economic saboteurs.”
Reports said the six suspects had been recruiting male and female job applicants in Davao City supposedly to work as cleaners and waitresses in Qatar and Bahrain, respectively.
The suspects are detained at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) pending the filing of charges against them.
They face charges of large-scale illegal recruitment, a non-bailable offense in this manpower exporting Southeast Asian country of English-speaking and election-cazy people .
When committed by a syndicate or in large scale, illegal recruitment is considered an offense involving “economic sabotage.”
Note that illegal recruitment is deemed committed by a syndicate or a ring if carried out by a group of three or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another.
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), headed by Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople, said the suspects promised the job applicants a monthly salary equivalent to some P40,000.
However, the suspects demanded an advance payment of P25,000 as placement and processing fees from each job applicant.
We, thus commend the government of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr., through the newly-established DMW, for intensifying the campaign against illegal recruitment.
It’s a move in the right direction considering the resumption of the deployment of Filipino workers abroad after the two-year lockdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
