MANILA — An executive order creating a new task force on illegal job recruitment with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) as lead agency has raised eyebrows among government officials, overseas Filipinos and advocates alike.

Civil society groups dealing with Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) said the tendency of the government to create task forces instead of strengthening existing agencies is not serving any good purpose.

Ellene Sana, the executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), wondered why the need for another task force a similar one created in 2004 did not even produce any results.

“Where is the performance report of the first task force, the PAIRTF (Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force) headed by Director Reynaldo Jaylo?” she asked.

Maya Bans Cortina of Kanlungan Philippines said her group was willing to give the new task force a chance. She said Jaylo’s task force did show some results although later some members of his group were rumored to be “extortionists.”

Arroyo’s choice of the CFO as lead agency, however, has spawned speculations of a motive.

“Why the CFO? They have always been wishy-washy like in the fight against illegal trafficking and mail order brides,” said Cortina.

Sana noted that the CFO’s mandate is to deal with permanent residents and immigrants, not OFWs.

But under Executive Order No. 548 issued by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Aug. 1, the commission is to orchestrate the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR), whose members would include representatives from the NBI, the national police, with help from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), the Department of Justice, the POEA, and the Bureau of Immigration.

Sana noted that the PAIRTF was created on the recommendations of participants of the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Overseas Employment Summit.

However, it was given only a life of one year. Jaylo, a decorated former police officer, ended up being charged with illegal detention and usurpation of authority when he continued to do his work even after the mandate of his task force ended.

In the case of the new task force, nobody claims to have any clue of how the idea of making the CFO the lead agency came about.

So, could it be that CFO Chairman Dante Ang, president Arroyo’s former publicist, engineered the drafting of the executive order to make himself the anti-illegal recruitment czar?

Ang has said he was not privy to the drafting of the executive order.

Whoever was behind the “brilliant idea,” Edna Aquino, head of the London’s Center for Migrants, said the creation of the new task force is “classic shortsightedness, pamasak butas, a disingenious approach by the government.”

“How can a minor agency such as the CFO possibly lead a task force with such a gargantuan mission,” she said, adding that even within the DFA, the commission was not able to get inter-agency cooperation.

The CFO was once an agency attached to the DFA and last year was transferred to the Office of the President (OP).

“This anti-illegal recruitment program requires a high level of enforcement authority at the Cabinet level to reflect the seriousness of the problem and the government’s decisive political will to address the problem. With all due respect to CFO staff who have been very supportive of the concerns of overseas Filipinos, I cannot help but say that this move by Malacañang ... is an insult to those who have been advocating for such a (strong anti-illegal job recruitment) body,” she said.

Robert Ceralvo said in an e-mail from New Jersey: Kung may pagmamahal lang na tunay ang gobyernong ito sa mga OFW, eh di sana si Palparan ang hinirang nila dito at hindi si Dante Ang (If this government really cares for victims of illegal recruitment, its should appoint Palparan as anti-illegal recruitment czar instead of Dante Ang).”

Ceralvo was referring to Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, commander of the army’s 7th Infantry Division, who has been tagged by leftist and human rights groups as a “butcher” for allegedly ordering the assassination of political activists.

He apparently meant that the government should unleash the likes of Palparan against illegal job recruiters and not against political activists.