MANILA, 9 December 2007 - The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has suspended three recruitment agencies facing charges of “exploitation.”

A suspension order issued by POEA Administrator Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, dated Nov. 27, 2007, identified the erring agencies as the Cete Millenium Link Recruitment Agency Inc., Sanlee International Placement Agency and Triple J and S International Services, Inc.

“We have reasonable grounds to believe that there is prima facie evidence against herein respondents for violation ... and continued operation will result to further violation or exploitation of our hapless workers ... (They) are hereby preventively suspended from participating in the overseas employment program of the government,” Baldoz said in her order.

Records of the POEA showed that a total of 16 Filipino workers sent to Canada in two batches paid said the suspended recruitment agencies exorbitant placement fees ranging from 50,000 pesos up to P65,000, in addition to the P4,000 medical examinations fee, P7,000 for English proficiency lessons, and P1,500 for trade test.

The victims were also made to shoulder their own airplane tickets amounting to P47,000 each.

The erring agencies referred the workers to a lending company, the David Daniels Lending Company, where they obtained loans totaling P499,000 inclusive of interest for the payment of their placement fees. This excludes the amount of $7,000 they have to pay their broker in Canada, the Triple J and S International Services.

They were met at the airport in Manila by a woman named Edith who handed them their documents and were made to sign papers on their departure last June. In Canada, Susan Teng, who claimed to be their coordinator, met them and took their passports.

To their horror, they were made to work for an employer not the Comfact Company promised to them.

Aside from doing odd jobs in the house of their employer, they were made to work as machine operators, construction laborers, plumbers and welders for up to 12 hours, given late dinners, and not given the promised salary.

Labor Attaché Francisco Luna, head of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Toronto, endorsed the case to the POEA for investigation last October.